The loophole allowed foreign importers to evade billions of dollars in tariffs
By Peter Navarro | THE HILL | February 4, 2026
One of President Trump’s first acts as our 47th president was to shut down what is known as the “de minimis loophole” — a relic of an earlier trade era that had metastasized into a full-blown scam against American workers, taxpayers, and communities.
The loophole allowed foreign importers to evade billions of dollars in tariffs while flooding the U.S. with millions of small packages — many of them carrying counterfeit goods and dangerous drugs like fentanyl.
Now, as if on cue, two members of Congress want to bring it back. Their bill is simultaneously a poster child for big money politics and a breathtaking insult to the public’s intelligence. It assumes voters won’t read past the title, won’t remember why de minimis was killed in the first place, and won’t connect the dots between lobbying disclosures, campaign checks, and a legislative resurrection of a loophole that nearly destroyed U.S. trade enforcement.