in effect
This is Executive Order 14298, signed May 12, 2025, which temporarily reduces the tariff rates the United States had previously imposed on goods imported from China. It modifies a series of earlier executive orders that had raised those rates in response to China’s retaliatory trade measures, citing ongoing trade negotiations as the reason for the reduction.
Effective May 14, 2025, imports from China (including Hong Kong and Macau) are subject to an additional tariff rate of 10 percent, down from the higher rates set by earlier orders. This is accomplished by suspending 24 percentage points of the previously applicable rate for an initial 90-day period. For low-value postal shipments (“de minimis” packages) from China, the ad valorem duty rate is reduced from 120 percent to 54 percent, while the flat $100-per-postal-item duty remains in place and a previously scheduled increase to $200 (set for June 1, 2025) is canceled. The 90-day suspension period began at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on May 14, 2025, after which the higher rates could return unless further action is taken.
U.S. businesses and consumers who import goods from China will pay lower tariffs on those goods during the 90-day window, reducing import costs compared to the rates in effect immediately before this order. Importers of small packages shipped directly from China — commonly associated with e-commerce — will see the duty rate on those shipments drop from 120 percent to 54 percent, though the $100 flat fee per package remains. Chinese exporters selling into the U.S. market are also directly affected, as the reduced rates lower the price barrier for their goods during the suspension period.