Tariff walls are going up around the world to try to head off an anticipated surge of low-value Chinese exports seeking to offset the impact of Donald Trump’s new tariff regime.

In Europe, the UK and Japan, governments are considering imposing new levies on shipments of small parcels now subject to “de minimis” (too small to matter) exemptions from their normal customs duties and tariffs.

The fear is Shein and Temu may seek to compensate for lower US sales by stepping up their marketing and supply to other economies.Credit: Bloomberg

The topic of how to respond to a prospective increase in what is already a flood of low-value exports from China was even raised at this week’s G7 meeting of the finance ministers in Canada, where de minimus imports were discussed as part of a broader conversation about how to co-ordinate the responses to the over-capacity and non-market practices of Chinese exporters.

In the sights of the major economies are, particularly Shein and Temu, which have exploited the de minimus exemptions to flood markets with their ultra-cheap fashion and consumer products with direct-to-consumer models built to exploit exemptions that are common to most advanced economies.

Already concerned, Europe and Japan have been galvanised into action by Trump’s tariffs and the expected response of Chinese companies.

In early February, the US announced via a Trump executive order that it was removing the exemption from duties for goods worth less than $US800 ($1240).

Within weeks, the US Postal Service was forced to suspend deliveries of packages from China and Hong Kong because it didn’t have the capacity to implement the policy. Then, a day later, it reversed the decision and suspended imposition of the duties until it developed the systems to collect them.

In April, on “Liberation Day”, the duties were re-imposed, with low-value parcels from China and Hong Kong facing duties of 120 per cent or a flat fee of $US100, with the flat fee scheduled to rise to $US200 next month.

However, within the 90-day pause in the wider tit-for-tat tariff........

© The Sydney Morning Herald