Suspension of the de minimis administrative exemption for imports $800 or less

bburnt-resistor about 2 hours ago 48 commentsRead Article on personalimportation.org

FR version is available. Content is displayed in original English for accuracy.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/24/2026-12...

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Discussion (48 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

MadrasTh0rn•4 minutes ago

Trump is trying to trade the petro dollar and opec for Venezuelan oil that will tank the dollar and make debt unpayable (every advisor has said this), how he's trying to make medicine unaffordable before alternatives are ready. Sheesh.

Every use case for tarrifs include got subsidy and small trade barriers so it can grow with market share.

happyopossum•about 1 hour ago

There's nothing in the CBP rule that prohibits importing prescriptions, although there will no longer be a duty exemption for them. The rule is about suspending the 'de minimis' exemption for shipments valued under $800...

loeg•14 minutes ago

Wasn't that already suspended in, like, 2025?

yibg•3 minutes ago

I believe it had a phased rollout, which impacts all parcels soon.

bayarearefugee•about 1 hour ago

goes into effect 12 days before a midterm election that is already starting to look like a blue tsunami.

It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em.

biglyburrito•36 minutes ago

Never interrupt your enemy when they are busy making a mistake.

JohnMakin•7 minutes ago

weird title change.

downrightmike•about 1 hour ago

What does this actually mean?

trashface•about 1 hour ago

Various pharmacies in Canada will accept a US prescription and send you the medication via mail, usually at far cheaper than what you would pay for the same in the US.

This prevents it.

motionlessveloc•about 1 hour ago

Means you can no longer legally buy far cheaper prescription medicines from Canada, Mexico, India, China etc and ship them to the US.

Their own primer on the topic: https://www.personalimportation.org/understand-the-issue

dawnerd•25 minutes ago

That’s not what it says. It’s still legal. You just have to pay duties. It’s also not just on medication. They shared these rules a while ago too.

matthewdgreen•9 minutes ago

Canadian pharmacies already pay tariffs. What does this actually change?

actionfromafar•about 1 hour ago

The people in charge betting they only need to count the "red" ballots this time?

mcmcmc•about 1 hour ago

It truly boggles the mind how Trump managed to sell tariffs as anything other than a tax on American consumers

porkshoe•about 1 hour ago

He gets away with it because a lot of right-wing elites _love_ the idea of taxing consumption rather than income (or, heaven forbid, wealth).

Additionally, Trump, Hassett, etc are still blaming Biden for inflation caused by the tariffs... and a lot of their base would rather believe that than admit that they got suckered by an obvious scam.

loeg•11 minutes ago

He doesn't actually "get away" with it. A lot of people, left and right, are unhappy about tariffs. But for now, he controls the executive, so it is what it is.

LastTrain•3 minutes ago

This is entirely in the “rights” control right now, any of them “unhappy” with it are outliers.

pstuart•5 minutes ago

A lot of his base believe his lie that the other countries are paying the tariffs.

His followers are literally beyond reason and will accept anything he says. It's so very depressing.

technothrasher•about 1 hour ago

> Trump, Hassett, etc are still blaming Biden for inflation caused by the tariffs

I'm starting to see this backfire with a lot of "personal responsibility" type old-school republicans to whom I talk. They're getting fed up with the administration just blanket blaming anything bad on Biden. Whether that will translate to actual political change, I do not know. But I found it interesting that I'm hearing the frustration more lately.

LastTrain•2 minutes ago

It will not because there are still immigrants and trans people to hate.

jeremyjh•22 minutes ago

Narrator: It did NOT translate to actual political change.

techmunky•about 1 hour ago

Is this even in CBP's wheelhouse or is this another egregious overreach?

adbachman•about 1 hour ago

this is their thing, yeah.

the C in CBP, "Customs", is specifically this kind of stuff.

cjkaminski•about 1 hour ago

If only it were so simple. Many of CBP's policies are clearly defined by U.S. Congress (most recent example, which actually establishes CBP: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/644/...). That said, Congress appears to have ceded their oversight role by allowing these rules to change without comment.

WarOnPrivacy•2 minutes ago

> Congress appears to have ceded their oversight role

If there is one most-bipartisan-thing-ever, ceding oversight is it. ex:FastTrack Trade

Someone1234•about 1 hour ago

I flagged this and wanted to explain my reasoning.

At the time of writing, the article states something that its own link doesn't support (i.e. it is inaccurate). CBP hasn't "suspended all personal prescription importation." What they've done is removed De Minimis Exemption (i.e. duty free below $800), and that's it. Meaning you can still important personal medication before and after Oct 22nd, what has changed is that now it is subject to normal duty.

Do I think this is bad for people importing personal medication? Absolutely I do, and I oppose it. However, I don't think misstating the argument is constructive nor warranted. You could make the argument using the facts on the ground, and then re-state that in the thread title.

So the story is worthy of discussion, and interesting (even the personal medication POV). But this link and this title aren't "it." Hopefully we can get a higher quality source and title on this topic.

dawnerd•about 2 hours ago

Better link: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/24/2026-12...