The $800 de minimis exemption is suspended, and duty now applies to every shipment entering the United States
regardless of value. For anyone buying low-unit-value rehabilitation products ― sock aids, leg lifters, padded transfer
belts ― that means a small trial order can now carry 20‒40% more cost than it did in 2024, and a sourcing model built
on frequent small air shipments has stopped working.
That is not a packaging problem. It is a purchasing-structure problem, and it is the single biggest change to how assistive
products cross the border since 2016.
What actually changed ― and why a $9 Sock Aid now needs a customs entry?
Because the legal channel that let sub-$800 packages clear duty-free is gone, so every commercial shipment now enters
with duties, fees and paperwork attached.
The timeline matters, because buyers keep working from stale assumptions:
2 May 2025 ― de minimis treatment was suspended for goods from China and Hong Kong.
29 August 2025 ― the suspension was extended to all origins. There is no value floor left.
1 July 2027 ― the One Big Beautiful Bill Act codifies permanent elimination into law.
The volume behind this decision explains why it stuck. CBP processed over 1 billion Section 321 shipments in 2025, against
roughly 140 million a decade earlier. A channel built for low-volume parcels was processing a container port's worth of e-commerce.
What replaces it is not one charge but a stack: applicable duty (MFN plus Section 301 where the HTS line is covered, typically
7.5‒25% on Chinese-origin goods), a Merchandise Processing Fee of 0.3464%, and a customs broker fee of roughly **
300 sample carton, the paperwork can cost more than the freight.
✅The exemption is not paused pending appeal. Plan for a post-de-minimis border.
For a purchasing team, the live question is no longer how the rule works. It is the de minimis suspension impact on mobility
aid importers' cash flow ― fewer, larger orders tie up more capital per SKU, and that is a budgeting decision rather than a
customs one.
Bottom line for buyers: the era of testing a new supplier with three cartons shipped direct is over ― every trial order
now carries a fixed entry cost that must be amortised.
How should you recalculate the real cost of a gait belt or leg lifter?
Start from landed cost per unit, not supplier price per unit ― then design the order size backwards from the fixed costs.
A worked example, using a 300-piece trial order of a padded transfer belt at $9.00 FOB. This is an illustrative model, not a
quotation; check your own HTS line and current rates before locking a price.
Cost line
Amount (USD)
Note
Goods, 300 pcs × $9.00 FOB
2,700
ex-works China
Duty, modelled at 29% (MFN + Section 301)
783
varies by HTS line
Merchandise Processing Fee (0.3464%)
9.35
minimum applies
Broker / informal entry
95
$50‒150 typical
Landed total
3,587
$11.96 per unit
Same product, same supplier, same price ― a 33% higher unit cost than the invoice suggests. On a $9 retail-wholesale item,
that is the entire margin.
The structural fixes, in order of impact:
1. Consolidate. One 500-piece shipment beats five 100-piece shipments on every fixed cost line.
2. Ask for the HS code with the quote. A supplier who cannot state the HTS line has not priced your landed cost ― only their
own invoice.
3. Move trial orders onto ocean LCL and hold stock in a U.S. 3PL, instead of air-freighting cartons on demand.
4. Buy from factories, not traders. This is where a small batch mobility aid supplier from China factory earns its keep: trial
runs from a few hundred pieces, private-label packaging, and one consolidated container instead of six partial ones.
If you have never built this model, our walkthrough on how to calculate landed cost for gait belts and similar low-value aids
starts with the fixed-cost floor ― because that floor is what kills small orders, not the duty rate. The same arithmetic explains
the de minimis suspension impact on mobility aid importers even when the duty rate looks tolerable.
Bottom line: the winning response is fewer, larger, better-documented shipments ― and a supplier who quotes landed
cost rather than FOB.
FAQ
Is the de minimis exemption coming back? No. The suspension was implemented outside the tariff authorities challenged in
court, and the 2027 legislation removes it permanently. Some proposals discuss a much lower threshold, but none are
advancing.
Do free samples now need a customs entry? Yes, in practice. Commercial goods of any value are subject to duty and
processing. Samples shipped under a courier's informal entry still generate fees ― build them into your product development
50–150perinformalentry ∗ ∗.Onabudget.
Should we just switch to a U.S. importer of record? Sometimes. A U.S.-based distributor taking the entry removes the
paperwork, but adds a margin layer. Either way the discipline is identical: know how to calculate landed cost for gait belts
before you compare two quotes. For most mid-size buyers the better trade is fewer, larger shipments plus a 3PL ― and a small
batch mobility aid supplier from China factory who will hold stock for consolidation
