Is de minimis still suspended? Where section 321 stands

Yes. The $800 de minimis administrative exemption under 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C) has been suspended for all countries and all modes of transport since August 29, 2025, under Executive Order 14324. CBP made that suspension indefinite by regulation on June 24, 2026, publishing two interim final rules and codifying the change at 19 C.F.R. § 10.151 (Federal Register). On August 13, 2026, the Court of International Trade upheld the suspension.

It is not coming back. Congress already terminated the exemption outright: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Pub. L. 119-21 § 70531(b), repeals it effective July 1, 2027. In the meantime, low-value parcels clear as informal or formal entries and owe ordinary MFN duty by HTS code, plus any Section 301 or Section 232 exposure, plus merchandise processing fee. The quiet upside for brands: duty actually paid on those entries is the kind of cost duty drawback is designed to refund when the goods later leave the country — something Entry Type 86 shipments could never generate, because they paid nothing.

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. That decision did not address the de minimis suspension, which rests on a different mechanism — withdrawing an administrative privilege rather than levying a duty (Federal Register).

The same day, E.O. 14388 continued the suspension on an independent legal footing, and CBP confirmed it would keep rejecting entries that claim the exemption (Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg). Trade press reached the same conclusion at the time: de minimis stayed shelved after the ruling (Supply Chain Dive).

If you are tracking the separate question of refunds on the IEEPA tariffs the Court struck down, that is a different process with a different clock — we keep a running explainer at /trump-tariffs.

On August 13, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade granted summary judgment for the government in Axle of Dearborn, Inc. d/b/a Detroit Axle v. Department of Commerce, Slip Op. 26-94. The court held that IEEPA's authority to "nullify or void" the exercise of a "right, power, or privilege" covers rescinding de minimis treatment.

The practical reading: imposing a tariff and taking away a privilege are two different acts, and only the first one fell at the Supreme Court (Troutman Pepper Locke; Alvarez & Marsal). As of publication we have found no record of an appeal to the Federal Circuit. Plan on the suspension holding until the statutory repeal takes over.

Operators keep collapsing this into a single deadline. There are two, and they do different things. The first is an entry-filing mandate for international mail. The second removes the statutory exemption entirely, so even a future administration could not switch it back on by executive order.

Entry Type 13 ("Informal Mail Entry") is a new electronic informal entry type in ACE for postal shipments valued at $2,500 or less. CBP deployed it to the ACE production environment on September 22, 2026, and on October 14, 2026 extended mandatory use for covered international postal shipments by 90 days — from October 22, 2026 to January 20, 2027 (BDO).

Strip away the headlines and the math is ordinary customs math. The parcel owes the most-favored-nation duty rate for its 10-digit HTSUS classification, plus any Section 301 or Section 232 duty that applies — both survived the IEEPA ruling untouched and remain in force (Thomson Reuters).

One line item has come off. The temporary 10% Section 122 surcharge under Proclamation 11012 ran from February 24 to July 24, 2026; the CIT held on May 7, 2026 that it exceeded the President's authority, relief was limited to the plaintiffs, and collection continued pending appeal (PwC; Wiley Rein). Rebuild the Chapter 99 stack for each SKU rather than trusting a landed-cost model built earlier in 2026.

Then add the merchandise processing fee. Formal entries pay 0.3464% ad valorem under 19 C.F.R. 24.23(b)(1), with a minimum and maximum that CBP adjusts annually for inflation — reported as $34.58 and $670.86 for entries on or after October 1, 2026 (LandedFees); confirm against CBP's own user-fee notice. Informal entries pay a flat fee instead.

Entry Type 86 is gone as a duty-free channel, so every parcel has to ride something else. Express and air cargo generally move as informal (Type 11) or formal (Type 01) entries. Postal shipments valued at $2,500 or less move to ET13.

ET13 is not a light-touch filing. It requires the importer of record to transmit a defined data set — filer and IOR codes, description, country of origin, the 10-digit HTSUS including Chapter 98/99, duty rate, value, duty owed, carrier, foreign tracking number and arrival port — plus a basic importation and entry bond. Antidumping/countervailing and quota merchandise stay ineligible for informal entry and must be filed formally (Lieberman PLLC; Troutman).

Run the per-parcel economics against freight consolidation into a U.S. 3PL. When broker fees, bond costs and data collection are charged per shipment, a single formal entry on a consolidated container often beats thousands of individual filings — and it produces cleaner import records, which matters for the refund math below.

Here is the part that rarely makes the compliance memos. Duty drawback is a CBP program that refunds up to 99% of duties, taxes and eligible fees — including MPF — on imported merchandise that is later exported or destroyed, under 19 U.S.C. 1313(j)(1) for unused merchandise and 1313(j)(2) for substitution, with procedures in 19 C.F.R. Part 190 and a five-year window from import to claim.

Under Entry Type 86, there was nothing to refund: the parcel paid zero. Now that the same parcel pays duty, every unit that leaves the U.S. again — international re-exports from a U.S. hub, customer returns shipped back abroad, destroyed inventory — can sit on a claim. The fields ET13 and informal entries force you to produce (10-digit HTS, country of origin, value, importer of record) are the same fields a drawback claim runs on, so the compliance work has a payoff attached.

Keep the claim narrow and honest: duty paid on Type 01 and Type 11 e-commerce entries is a real, well-established drawback base. Whether duties paid on postal ET13 entries can be designated on a claim, and who holds the right to claim when a broker acts as importer of record, is not addressed by primary CBP guidance we could find — confirm with CBP or your filer before building a program around mail entries. If returns are a big part of your flow, we walk through the wrinkles in /blog/how-returns-complicate-duty-drawback-for-ecommerce-brands.

First, confirm who is the importer of record on every low-value lane you run, and whether your mail volume is covered by the January 20, 2027 ET13 mandate. Second, rebuild landed cost per SKU with the current Chapter 99 stack — Section 122 lapsed on July 24, 2026, and stale assumptions cut both ways.

Third, decide between per-parcel entries and consolidating into a U.S. 3PL, using actual broker, bond and data-handling costs rather than a per-unit guess. Fourth, start capturing import and export records together now; the five-year drawback window runs from the date of import, so records you fail to keep this quarter quietly shrink what you can claim later.

If you are already paying duty on parcels that later go abroad, it is worth sizing the refund before the volume builds. Evana's duty drawback service identifies eligibility and files claims on a performance basis, and the refund estimator gives you a rough number in a few minutes.