Like many small business owners in Canada, Rick Ho is uncertain about the future.
The Londoner’s company, Echo Sales, specializes in mailing confections to U.S. retailers like convenience stores and gas stations — confections that are everywhere in Canada, but hard to find stateside.
It’s a business that’s been largely possible thanks to a little-known trade loophole known as the de minimis customs exemption.
The exemption, first enacted in the late 1930s, waives standard customs procedures and tariffs on goods worth less than $800 shipped into to individuals in the U.S. It’s a loophole the U.S. is now looking to close.
It waives standard customs procedures and tariffs on goods worth less than $800 that are shipped into the U-S to individuals.
“If they drop the de minimus exemption, my business will come to an end, because all the transactions are relatively small,” Ho said.
“Even if they passed duty-free but were applied …