Where do Trump, Temu and Shein cross over? Tariffs. Watch Kevin and Casey’s full discussion about the effect of tariffs on tech and fast fashion at youtube.com/hardfork. #news #fastfashion #podcast

I want to call out one other piece of these tariffs that I think will have an immediate impact, not just on tech companies, but on American consumers. And that is this thing called the de minimis exemption. So for many years now, there has been this rule on the books that if what you are shipping from China or another country is less than $800 in value, you can export that to the US duty-free. What does that mean? It means that there have been entire companies like Timu and Shein and a lot of Chinese manufacturers selling on Amazon that have been able to export things to customers in the US without paying an extra duty that you would have to pay if you were exporting something much more expensive. And as part of these tariff announcements, the Trump administration announced that it was ending the de minimis exemption. I don't know how these companies survive, these companies that are producing fast fashion, that are producing electronics, that are basically taking things manufactured in China and exporting them to the US, if that exemption actually goes away. And it appears that it will in just a few weeks.