De Minimis: Amazon’s Big Little Secret

Rethinking Trade with Lori Wallach

01-06-2022 • 22 min

On this episode of Rethinking Trade with Lori Wallach we’ll expose Amazon’s big little secret — a loophole which allows Amazon and other online giants to import billions of dollars in uninspected, unsafe, tax-dodging goods from China into the United States every year. Only Uzbekistan has a bigger “de minimis” loophole, which is the technical name for this scam. Today, more than two million such uninspected packages slip through every day from China alone.

Lori is joined by one of our country’s great champions for working people and manufacturing, the President and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations, Kim Glas. She will break down how this loophole works, who it is hurting and what’s being done to fix it.