Import Security and Fairness Act of 2023 (H.R.4148/S.2004)

The bill was introduced in the House by Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Neal Dunn (R-FL) on June 15, 2023 (H.R.4148). The bill was introduced in the Senate by Senators Sherrod Brown (R-OH), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) on June 15, 2023 (S.2004).  

The purpose of the bill is to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 relating to “de minimis” treatment of imports

BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY THE BILL SPONSOR: The government has significantly raised the “de minimis” threshold for tax-free imports, to $200 in 1990s and most recently to $800 in 2016. The latest increase has coincided with an explosion in e-commerce packages that use the de minimis provision to enter the United States, currently more than two million packages per day. This influx of imports, which do not pay duties, taxes, and fees, and provide less data to the U.S. government, has created unaddressed issues for compliance with U.S. laws. Regulators like U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have raised strong concerns about compliance with basic U.S. laws designed to protect the United States from imports of forced labor goods, and other unsafe and illicit imports. 

The Import Security and Fairness Act:

  • Prohibits “de minimis” entry of goods from non-market economies, and countries on the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) Priority Watch List, such as China. 
  • Requires CBP to collect more information on all “de minimis” shipments, to better support enforcement of laws [including the ban on forced labor imports, and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of 2021]
    • a description of the article
    • the appropriate classification of the article under the U.S. “Harmonized Tariff Schedule”
    • the country of origin of the article
    • the country from which the article is shipped
    • the identity of the shipper 
    • the identity of the importer; and
    • the transaction value of the article in the United States
  • Provides for a civil penalty of $5,000 for the first violation, and $10,000 for each subsequent violation. A penalty imposed under this paragraph is in addition to any other penalty provided by law.

Click here for a one-page fact sheet. Click here for the full text.