Commerce Official Says de Minimis Rulemaking Still Coming Before Biden's Term Ends
NEW YORK -- Tyler Beckelman, a Commerce deputy assistant secretary who also sits on the interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, told a garment industry audience that the Biden administration still intends to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on de minimis "before we all turn into pumpkins on Jan. 20."
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Before the election, DHS announced it would issue a proposed rule before Jan. 20 that would remove goods subject to Section 301 and other special tariffs from de minimis eligibility, and that it also would issue a proposed rule on what data is required for de minimis shipments (see 2409130004).
Removing imports subject to Section 301 was a rule that the Trump administration also worked on in its last year, but the Biden administration dropped it in 2021.
DHS intends for these rules to improve CBP's ability to find illicit shipments in the de minimis stream, both by shrinking the volume and by improving information that can be used for targeting.
Beckelman, who spoke Nov. 13 at the annual U.S. Fashion Industry Association trade and transportation conference, supervises civil servants at the Office of Textiles and Apparel who issue short supply determinations. He noted that the division added six products to the list in 2024. He said the Commerce Department has been focused on the Western Hemisphere, and he said that $13 billion worth of apparel was imported from CAFTA countries in 2023, and "that seems to be on the upswing." He said that represented 17% of imports.
"All trade policy is up in the air with the new administration," he added.
At an earlier session, David Spooner, USFIA's Washington counsel, said he sometimes gets questions about whether Nicaragua could be kicked out of the CAFTA-DR deal. Members of Congress have said it should be, because of democratic backsliding in that nation. Spooner had said he has always said it's unlikely, but now that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is slated to become the new secretary of state, "I think it's much more likely."
USFIA President Julia Hughes asked Beckelman, who used to be a political appointee at the U.S. Agency for International Development, about the prospect for renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which expires at the end of September 2025. He said he expects bipartisan support to continue for AGOA, but "it may look very different than how AGOA has looked in the past, particularly as it relates to third-country fabric." He said a Trump administration might not look upon that provision of AGOA as favorably as Congress has.
In 2023, AGOA apparel imports were $1.1 billion, the third-largest category after petroleum products and automotive sector imports. Nearly all of those garments used fabric from outside AGOA, mostly from Asia. Only the least-developed countries can use third-party fabric, and countries that lost that status had drops in apparel exports.