Recently after a series of articles we published (here) and (here) on the subject of De Minimis, we created a shipment to measure what impact if any, a small package moving from Hong Kong China to New York City might encounter?
     On Wednesday March 12 at 13.57 local time at HKG, our Bob Rogers tendered a small package containing a couple of items including a small thermos flask and a new HDMI cable; the sort of items that might be ordered by someone in USA, as example from the website, Temu.
     The goods were declared as commercial and given values of less than USD$25.
Bob also dropped an Apple Airtag in the box and we sat back and watched the show.
     By Friday morning the box was already at the airport airmail facility at Hong Kong, and then very strangely by that night the tag was reportedly somewhere five miles above the Rocky Mountains . . . we guess, because a passenger upstairs on the flight deck had their i-Phone switched on!
     By Saturday morning the parcel was situated inside the cavernous Morgan Mail Distribution Center located on 9th Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.
     Morgan is the big-daddy that handles more packages and mail than any other facility in USA including all traffic bound for delivery from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
     On Monday March 17, our faithful and always on-time, smiling United States Postal Service postal person hand-delivered our package with our regular mail into the FlyingTypers office.
     So there you have it . . . a commercial shipment travelled half-way around the world without any kind of payment.
     Despite all “the hoopla” on changes that De Minimis rules might impact small package shipments with value of less than USD$800, its seems in this case at least, it was the same-old, same-O.
     However right now shipping via China Post and USPS Postal, the handling and delivery of small packages, at least from China to USA, will have a tariff of USD$25.00.
Bob Rogers