De minimis is gone: swatches, hardware and replacement parts

The overseas mill sends a card of linen swatches. Another vendor sends replacement glides for a chair repair. Both parcels are small enough to disappear behind the coffee machine, but their customs treatment now deserves a proper place in the purchasing routine.

Executive Order 14324 suspended the duty-free de minimis treatment used for low-value shipments from all countries, effective August 29, 2025. A parcel's small value no longer supplies that exemption. The actual goods, entry route, and other rules still determine the charges and paperwork. Executive order.

General information, not legal advice.

Replace the small-parcel assumption with an entry check

De minimis provided an administrative duty-and-tax exemption for qualifying low-value goods. Its suspension does not mean every parcel pays the same rate or that every sample is necessarily dutiable. It means the store cannot rely on the former low-value route to settle the question.

CBP's August 28, 2025 guidance requires an appropriate formal or informal ACE entry for affected non-postal shipments. International postal shipments follow the separate collection process described in that guidance. Ask the courier or broker which route your shipment uses before the vendor dispatches it.

Keep customs duty, government fees, and the courier's own service charges separate when requesting an estimate. A delivery company may collect several amounts together, but that does not make them one tax. The brokerage guide explains the questions to take to the filing party.

Give free samples a useful description and value basis

“No charge” tells you what the vendor invoiced the store. It does not, by itself, establish a customs value or exemption. Ask the courier or broker how the particular swatch, sample book, or replacement part should be described and valued, and whether any separate sample treatment applies.

Give the vendor the agreed paperwork requirements before shipping. Identify the material, purpose, quantity, origin, and whether the goods are samples or repair parts. Avoid an invoice saying only “gift” or “no commercial value” when that does not accurately describe the transaction.

The same discipline helps service. A bag of glides should identify the actual part and chair it supports. “Bits for the blue chair” is a useful phrase in the workshop and a less useful customs description.

Decide who pays before the parcel moves

Ask the sender and courier who will be charged duty, clearance, and delivery-related fees. Put that arrangement in the order or warranty correspondence. A vendor offering a replacement part free of charge may be describing the part only, not every cost of getting it to your warehouse.

If the store must pay on arrival, give the receiving team an approval route and the shipment reference. If the sender is paying, obtain confirmation of the booking arrangement. This avoids a repair waiting while the service desk tries to determine who can authorize a courier invoice.

For a disputed allocation of responsibility under a warranty or supply agreement, check with your attorney. For routine planning, a written vendor answer before shipment is much more useful than an argument over a small bill afterward.

Batch what can wait and expedite what cannot

Combine routine sample and hardware requests where the service and cost comparison supports it. Ask whether the vendor can include them in an already planned furniture shipment, with accurate documentation. Consolidation can reduce repeated handling or service charges, but it is not a way to avoid describing the goods.

Keep urgent customer repairs separate from routine replenishment. A replacement glide holding up a delivery may justify a courier shipment; an updated finish book may be able to wait. Compare the complete shipment cost with the customer consequence of waiting rather than choosing one rule for every small parcel.

Include the small charges in the repair decision

Say a replacement part is supplied free, while an illustrative shipment incurs $40 of transport and $20 of clearance charges. The part still costs the store $60 to obtain before any labor. Add any actual duty separately; do not apply an assumed furniture tariff to every component.

The tariff guide explains why classification matters. Use the repair-or-replace guide to compare the full repair route with the available alternatives. A zero part price is only one line in that decision.

When a warranty part is purchased through an OrderPilot PO, record its actual duty and courier clearance charges with the purchase. Keep the invoice evidence with the claim so the cost considered for vendor recovery includes those amounts. Recovery still depends on the vendor's agreement and response; the record makes the request supportable.

Before the next parcel leaves the factory, settle its description, entry route, payer, and total estimate. Then use the vendor-recovery guide to carry any agreed reimbursement through the service record.

Sources

1. Executive Order 14324: Suspending duty-free de minimis treatment — President of the United States, July 30, 2025; effective August 29, 2025.
2. CSMS #66065494: Suspension implementation guidance — U.S. Customs and Border Protection, August 28, 2025.