Small businesses brace for fallout from U.S. duty exemption’s removal

The elimination of the de minimis exemption could be problematic for Maritime producers.

An exemption which allowed packages worth $800 USD or less to be sent stateside without any duty charges is officially no more.

The removal of the de minimis exemption as of Friday means full duties will now be collected on all worldwide packages entering the United States.

Selena Bil owns The Maritime Box, which ships curated local products by mail. Bil says the exemption’s removal will have a significant impact on her business as she has “quite a few loyal U.S. customers.”

“They love Canada, they want to support Canada, especially Atlantic Canada,” says Bil. “It’s heartbreaking because you want to be able to treat your customers the same as everyone else, but because of these extra costs we have to make some hard decisions.”

Bil has put a pause on accepting new U.S. orders and is temporarily holding back on mailing 15 U.S.-bound packages.

“I’m trying to decide whether or not I am going to absorb those costs or if I should just send them because they are the first ones,” says Bil.

Last year almost 1.4 billion packages entered the U.S. without being charged duties. The White House has called de minimis a mechanism to “evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products that harm American workers and businesses into the United States.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says the exemption’s removal is yet another hit to small businesses amid the ongoing trade war.

“It’s coming at a time when you don’t necessarily have a lot of resilience in the small business sector,” says Simon Gaudreault, the federation’s chief economist and vice-president.

Last week, a survey by the federation found one in five small Canadian businesses dealing with tariff costs won’t last more than six months if the status-quo lingers on.