US says packages from China to face formal customs entry under new tariffs

President Donald Trump over the weekend laid down a controversial, across-the-board tariff against China. One aspect of Trump’s ongoing crackdown on trade with China may have bipartisan support: eliminating the de minimis exemption.

Major Chinese companies shipping to the U.S. must pay customs duties and taxes. However, if the shipment is valued at less than $800, they avoid those fees. Through a loophole called the de minimis exemption, they can avoid the taxes and scrutiny of larger shipments.

A Chinese companies like online retailer Temu and Singapore-based Shein, which ship directly to consumers, strategically limit shipments to below the threshold of $800 to avoid paying taxes to the U.S.

When applying this strategy across the companies’ billions of dollars of business across the U.S., the avoided taxes add up.

There are ongoing questions about these Chinese companies’ business practices, including whether they are using slave labor and the exemption to avoid U.S. regulations.

During the Biden administration, that same loophole drew bipartisan criticism. Now, Trump’s executive orders have explicitly stated that its new tariffs apply even to de minimis packages.

The U.S. Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party during the last Congress addressed some of these issues in a report. That bipartisan report from June 2023 said Chinese companies are taking advantage of American tax law.

"These results are shocking: Temu is doing next to nothing to keep its supply chains free from slave labor,” Mike Gallagher, a former Wisconsin lawmaker who formerly chaired the committee, said in the announcement of the report’s release. “At the same time, Temu and Shein are building empires around the de minimis loophole in our import rules – dodging import taxes and evading scrutiny on the millions of goods they sell to Americans.

“We need to take a hard look at this loophole that is being abused to tilt the playing field against American companies,” he added.

The report goes on to say that Temu and Shein alone make up about 30% of all packages using the de minimis exemption.

“Both Temu and Shein rely heavily on the de minimis exception to ship packages directly to U.S. consumers, allowing them to provide less robust data to CBP, avoid import duties, and minimize the likelihood that the packages will be screened for UFLPA compliance,” the report said.

Hundreds of millions of packages each year use this exemption, according to the report, which also raised national security concerns.

From the report:

The overwhelming volume of small packages and lack of actionable data limit CBP’s ability to identify and interdict high-risk shipments that may contain narcotics, merchandise that poses a risk to public safety, counterfeits, or other contraband. For instance, ninety percent of all counterfeit goods were seized by CBP in the de minimis environment. In FY 2022, CBP cleared over 685 million de minimis shipments with insufficient data to properly determine risk. While CBP receives some advance electronic data for Section 321 shipments from carriers, according to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, “the transmitted data often does not adequately identify the entity causing the shipment to cross the border, the final recipient, or the contents of the package.”

For these reasons, the de minimis provision is foundational to Shein and Temu’s business models and relevant to the Select Committee’s analysis of each company’s UFLPA compliance regime. The fact that the vast majority of products shipped from both Shein and Temu to American consumers fall under the de minimis exception means that these companies avoid customs duties – making each product cheaper – and are less likely to face the same level of customs scrutiny that other retailers might face on a formal entry.

An antitrust advocate has been calling for the end to the loophole

“Chinese retailers appear to be avoiding tariffs by pricing individual units at absurdly low prices. Don’t get me wrong – low prices are the aim of a healthy, competitive market," Robert H. Bork Jr., president of the Antitrust Education Project, told The Center Square in September 2024. "But these prices are not the result of economic competition. They are the result of intentional economic warfare. As a result, they are exploiting our economy and effectively doing it tariff-free."

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_c5b7e86e-e270-11ef-bdc6-6fe666846fd9.html

Murphy walks back comments on 'illegal living in his home'

 Gov. Phil Murphy's office backtracked on his comments made Saturday during an interview with liberal political group Blue Wave New Jersey.

In video livestreamed on the governor's YouTube channel, Murphy dared ICE to raid his multi-million-dollar Navesink River property, giving the impression that he may be harboring someone who is in the country illegally.

But after his comments made headlines Monday morning, his office told New Jersey 101.5 that Murphy's words were "misinterpreted." His office said no one was ever living at the governor's home in Middletown for any period of time.

The person in question is a legal U.S. resident who was “consumed by fear” during the past two weeks. Murphy was only giving his "human reaction" to what he would do if this person felt threatened but never said it directly to the person.

The source did not address the tone of Murphy's comment, which seemed to dare ICE to come to his home.

Immigration fight intensifies

The statement comes as immigration agents have conducted multiple actions in New Jersey to arrest individuals who are in the United States illegally.

Murphy has banned state and local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with ICE agents.

President Donald Trump has taken aim at self-described sanctuary cities and states that offer protections to undocumented immigrants.

 https://nj1015.com/governor-phil-murphy-comments-clarified/

Cystic Fibrosis Biotech Sionna Announces $150M IPO

 

The Massachusetts-based biotech plans to use the funds to push its candidates into mid-stage clinical trials in a space dominated by Vertex.

Making good on plans filed in late January, cystic fibrosis-focused Sionna Therapeutics announced expected figures for its IPO on Monday.

In an SEC filing, Sionna said it is offering 8,823,529 shares priced between $16 and $18 per share, for a target total of $150 million.

Sionna’s portfolio is aimed at drugging the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein, mutations in which are the main cause of the disease. Sionna’s drugs in development all target CFTR in different ways, including two that stabilize NBD1, a domain of CFTR that, according to the company, was previously considered undruggable.

Sionna aims to use the proceeds from the IPO to push its NBD1-targetting drugs, currently in Phase I trials, into mid-stage studies.

In March 2024, Sionna raised $182 million in a Series C round, and in June it put together a licensing deal with AbbVie for two more cystic fibrosis drugs in Phase II trials. The cash from the Series C will keep the company afloat through 2026, according to Sionna CEO Mike Cloonan.

In its SEC filing, Sionna noted that the total global market for CFTR-targeting was around $10 billion in 2023, and is expected to grow to $15 billion by 2029.

The most notable drug on the cystic fibrosis market right now is Trikafta, manufactured by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which improves the function of CFTR proteins through a slightly different mechanism than Sionna’s drugs. In a note written in December after Trikafta received extended FDA approval, Truist analysts said that Sionna’s development pipeline was a reason for Vertex “to stay vigilant.”

Sionna is not the only company going after CFTR and its theoretically undruggable parts. Swiss biopharma company Idorsia Pharmaceuticals published research last year on a candidate targeting the same mutation as Sionna’s NBD1 drugs, though that work is still preclinical.

https://www.biospace.com/business/cystic-fibrosis-biotech-sionna-announces-150m-ipo

US Readies New $1BN Arms Sale To Israel As Netanyahu Arrives In Washington

 While the name of the game for Trump has been cut, cut, cut and put a halt to all wasteful and corrupt US foreign aid siphoned abroad, funds sent to Israel have remained untouched.

And now the Trump administration is readying a new $1 billion arms sale to Israel, including 4,700 1,000-pound bombs and armored bulldozers. Trump is requesting fresh Congressional approval for the potential sale.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story Monday, wrote "The planned weapons sales include 4,700 1,000-pound bombs, worth more than $700 million, as well as armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar, worth more than $300 million, the officials said."

"The new arms requests, which would be paid for from the billions of dollars in annual U.S. military aid to Israel, come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington and set to meet President Trump on Tuesday to discuss the cease-fire in Gaza, a separate truce in Lebanon and tensions in the wider Middle East," the report continued.

This comes amid the backdrop of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's arriving in Washington D.C. on Monday, ahead of his scheduled White House visit with Trump Tuesday.

Crucially, Netanyahu will be the first world leader to meet with Trump since the Jan.20 inauguration. Israel remains America's closest official Mideast ally, and a meeting between a new president and Israel's head of state is typical spanning back multiple administrations.

But these are sensitive times, given the fragile Gaza ceasefire and hostage/prisoner swap deal is still ongoing. Some hardliners close to Netanyahu oppose it, even while families of the hostages have pressed for it to go all the way until all hostages alive and deceased are returned.

The Tuesday meeting in the Oval Office is expected to be dominated by these several issues:

• Preserving the Gaza ceasefire
• A potential deal to finally achieve Israel-Saudi relations
• Moving forward with a total $8 billion in arms transfers

These issues are somewhat interlocking. Trump has stood with Netanyahu on the stance of wanting to see the final military eradication of Hamas, but Trump has also hailed the ceasefire as ultimately the product of his administration entering office.

As for the arms transfers issue, WSJ has detailed the following:

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials are expected to press Trump to move forward with a separate set of arms transfers that were initially requested by the Biden administration, totaling more than $8 billion in new bombs, missiles and artillery rounds.

The Biden administration notified key congressional leaders about that sale in January before it left office. The weapons haven’t yet received full approval because of a hold by some Democratic lawmakers, a congressional official said.

Last week, Trump within released a hold on a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel previously paused by the Biden administration.

And on Monday, the US has moved to cut all funding to the controversial UN aid organization present in Palestinian territories - the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The US has long sided with Israel regarding the accusation that it is compromised by local Hamas staffers, or Hamas-sympathetic officials.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-readies-new-1bn-arms-sale-israel-netanyahu-arrives-washington

Secret Service Agent: DEI Contributed To Near-Killing Of Trump

 by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

A Secret Service agent is for the first time publicly speaking out against the agency’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, which he says contributed to the first assassination attempt against President Trump last summer.

A 13-year veteran of the agency who has served in an elite unit and top protective assignments, Rashid Ellis sat down for an interview with the Independent Women’s Forum, a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit.

IWF is in the process of making a documentary, titled “Qualifications, Not Quotas,” about Ellis’s experience and released an explanation of the documentary and a trailer Thursday providing a snapshot of his experience and concerns.

“My initial thoughts when seeing the Butler assassination attempt was dread,” Ellis states solemnly in the trailer. “My stomach was in knots watching it because we had known for years that this was coming.”

“I believe agendas have taken priority at the United States Secret Service for a long time, which is why Butler and July 13 happened and why we got a president get shot,” he adds.

A graduate of The Citadel, a prestigious military college in South Carolina, Ellis has served on the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team, an elite unit that provides tactical support to the president of the United States. Ellis went on to serve on the Presidential Protective Detail, a top assignment protecting presidents and their families, and as an instructor at the Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center, where he has taught new and experienced agents about counter-surveillance, according to a 2023 article on The Citadel’s website.

“To be in the Secret Service, you have to be worthy of trust and confidence,” Ellis, wearing his Citadel class ring on a braided necklace around his neck, states in the video. “I’ve always viewed [it] as an honor and privilege to serve in this capacity. However … what I’ve seen with the United States is a different set of standards based on gender.”

Despite his accomplishments, Ellis, who is black, says he was unfairly denied a leadership position and believes that DEI gender “quotas played a factor.” He argues that the agency’s hiring and promotions based on skin color and gender have directly contributed to lowering morale and the ongoing exodus of senior agents leaving the agency. The previous Secret Service leadership placed a special emphasis on hiring and promoting women.

“Real danger is out there,” he states. “We need to restore confidence. We have to be focused on the threat that’s outside and the threat that’s in front of us.”

During the final weeks of the campaign, whistleblowers warned members of Congress that Trump was facing multiple “assassination teams,” including three inspired by Iran and other governments. The FBI arrested Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national with ties to Iran, one day before the Butler rally and later charged him with murder for hire as part of an alleged scheme to assassinate Trump on U.S. soil. The Justice Department in November announced separate charges against an “Iranian asset” and two Americans in a murder-for-hire scheme against Trump.

Even before the assassination attempts in the final months of the campaign, Secret Service agents were sounding the alarm that DEI policies were lowering hiring and training standards in the push to reach quotas for female and minority agents and officers, as RealClearPolitics reported in late April.

The criticism came in the wake of an incident in which a female Secret Service agent physically attacked a superior at Joint Base Andrews, home base for Air Force One and Air Force Two. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi described the incident as a “medical matter” and said the agency would not “disclose further details.”

The incident attracted scrutiny of an initiative signed by former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to increase the number of female agents. Cheatle, whom former President Biden tapped to serve as USSS director, was responding to Biden’s executive order requiring all federal agencies to demonstrate a commitment to DEI, which he issued on his first day in office in 2021.

Cheatle, who resigned under pressure from Congress after the Butler assassination attempt, signed onto the 30x30 initiative, a national campaign to increase the representation of women in all law enforcement ranks across the country to 30% of the workplace by 2030. Before Cheatle stepped down, she was close to reaching that goal, with women making up nearly a quarter of Secret Service agents and Uniformed Division officers, Secret Service sources told RCP.

In addition, at least until Trump’s first days in office, the Secret Service had an “Inclusion and Engagement Council,” which pledged to become the agency’s “game-changers” when it comes to helping the agency “build, foster, create, and inspire a workforce where diversity and inclusion are not just ‘talked about’ but demonstrated by all employees through ‘Every Action, Every Day.’”

The agency also had an Office of Equity & Employment Support Services, which maintained an internal website to provide “executive leadership and oversight for the effective management of all resources and, agency-wide initiatives, and external requirements” for DEI. That office included at least a dozen officials devoted to working on DEI programs, according to screenshots of the internal website that RCP viewed.

After the first assassination attempt against Trump and before the second at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course, the Secret Service’s DEI office sent out an agency-wide email soliciting nominations for agency employees to attend the “Out and Equal” Workplace Summit at Disney World. The all-expense paid, three-day LGBTQ+ conference, which RCP first reported, took place Oct. 7-10, during the height of the campaign season when agents were working at a frenetic pace with no leave permitted.

The internal agency solicitation spurred a wave of criticism from members of Congress investigating the agency’s failures at Butler. The Secret Service rationalized its participation with a spokesman noting that only a limited number of administrative personnel were permitted to attend.

On his first day in office, Trump began to dismantle the previous administration’s DEI efforts across the federal government. His executive order, titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” directed all federal DEI staff be placed on paid lead and, eventually, laid off.

Trump also tapped Sean Curran, head of his campaign detail, as the new director, replacing acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe who retired last week. Just two days into the job, Curran started cleaning house. On Jan. 21, he reassigned or pressed at least 10 senior leaders to retire immediately in a shake-up agents referred to as “Bloody Friday.”

Though many agents applauded these actions from the new administration, they believe it will take years of effort to right the DEI wrongs, which they say have severely weakened the agency.

“Though I welcome the change of leadership at the top of the agency and the reforms I hope they will prioritize, I worry that it will take years to rectify the damage that discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion policies have caused,” Ellis told RCP in a written statement. “The Secret Service’s role is critical, and if we do not clean out the rot that has embedded itself in this agency, our people – and our protectees – will pay the price.”

Ellis noted that he has proudly worked for the agency for 13 years and has repeatedly put his “life on the line to advance this agency’s mission and secure the safety of our protectees.”

Unfortunately, he says, over the past several years he watched the agency’s leaders abandon its critical protective mission “in favor of ideological goals.”

“The relentless push by Secret Service leadership to meet diversity quotas in particular has compromised our ability to meet our protectees’ needs,” he argued. “This agenda has contributed to devastating security failures, including the July 13 assassination attempt of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I know this firsthand because I am one of many Secret Service agents who was wrongly sidelined by agency leadership because I did not meet their sex-based diversity requirements,” he said.

The IWF is continuing to work on a full documentary about Ellis’ experiences and deep concerns but decided to release a trailer to highlight the “counterproductive” impact DEI policies have had on several federal agencies, including the Secret Service. DEI policies are especially detrimental to the Secret Service’s “zero-fail” mission and its top priority of protecting presidents, vice presidents, their family members, and key Cabinet members, according to Kaylee McGhee White, editor-in-chief of Independent Women Features, IWF’s storytelling and journalism arm, which is producing the documentary.

“The Secret Service is one of many federal agencies whose work has been hampered by divisive and counterproductive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies,” McGhee White said. “Given the Secret Service’s critical work, this agenda has had particularly visible consequences. The Secret Service’s protectees should not be worried about whether the agency is able to adequately prepare for and respond to threats due to unfair hiring and promotion standards.

“Unfortunately, as Rashid Ellis has confirmed, that is exactly what has happened,” she said.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/secret-service-agent-dei-contributed-near-killing-trump

'Russia's Medvedev Warns That US Deep State Might Swallow Musk'

 Having long witnessed the phenomenon of USAID-backed 'color revolutions' in neighboring and regional former Soviet satellite countries, Russia has been closely following the Trump administration's efforts to fully dismantle the United States Agency for International Development.

Head of the recently established US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, has been spearheading this, saying on Monday that "We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead." And now Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has weighed in with a message and a warning.

The former Russian president and top national security official expressed hope that the US deep state won’t consume Elon Musk after shutting down the long-running agency known for having funded regime change operations abroad for many decades.

"Smart move by Elon Musk, trying to plug USAID's Deep Throat. Let's hope notorious Deep State doesn't swallow him whole," Medvedev wrote on X.

Ironically this came the same day that never-Trump neocon and intellectual architect behind Bush's disastrous Iraq war issued a tweet declaring his preference for the deep state, and he was being quite literal.

"The deep state is far preferable to the Trump state," Kristol said, in a rare moment saying what many other career government operatives are thinking, or saying the quiet part out loud.

Interestingly Medvedev also took the opportunity Monday to blast Ukraine and President Zelensky over alleged 'missing' USAID funds meant for Kiev. According to Russia's RT:

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s recent claim that he is unaware of the whereabouts of more than $100 billion of Western aid funds allocated to Kiev is a “brazen and cynical lie,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested.

In a Telegram post on Monday, Medvedev, who now serves as the Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, accused Zelensky and his associates of embezzling significant sums. “In a fit of candor, the Bandera regime’s boss admitted that he and his cronies had siphoned off $100 billion,” he stated.

Zelensky had told the Associated Press in an interview published the day prior that Ukraine received just over $75 billion in military and other types of assistance, despite $177 billion in military aid had been approved under Biden.

"When it is said that Ukraine received $200 billion to support the army during the war – that’s not true. I don’t know where all that money went. Perhaps it’s true on paper with hundreds of different programs – I won’t argue, and we’re immensely grateful for everything. But in reality, we received about $76 billion. It’s significant aid, but it’s not $200 billion," Zelensky said, in remarks that have raised eyebrows.

There may also be serious questions from the new Trump administration over the line about not knowing where all that money went. Time for a full stoppage at least until there is a thorough US-sponsored audit? Medvedev has alleged, "The hundred billion lined the pockets of all kinds of kleptocrats from Washington to Kiev."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russias-medvedev-warns-us-deep-state-might-swallow-musk

'OPEC Drops US EIA As A Secondary Source Assessing Oil Production'

 by By Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

• OPEC has replaced the EIA with Kpler, OilX, and ESAI as secondary sources for assessing crude oil production and compliance with output cuts.

• This decision comes after OPEC previously dropped the IEA from its list of data sources.

• The move is seen as a significant snub to the U.S. energy agency and reflects growing tensions between OPEC and the West.

OPEC is dropping the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) as a secondary source to assess crude oil production of the OPEC+ countries and their compliance with the group’s output cuts, the cartel said after a panel meeting on Monday.

After thorough analysis from the OPEC Secretariat, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) replaced consultancy Rystad Energy and the EIA with Kpler, OilX, and ESAI, as part of the secondary sources used to assess the crude oil production and compliance, OPEC said.

The move is effective from February 1, 2025. Before that date, OPEC used figures from seven consultancies and agencies, including the EIA, Rystad Energy, and Wood Mackenzie, among others.

OPEC uses secondary sources to track and report its crude oil production and to monitor compliance with the OPEC+ production cuts by using the average of the figures provided by these sources.

OPEC had already dropped in 2022 the International Energy Agency (IEA) from its list of secondary sources after the Paris-based agency embarked on a campaign to criticize oil-producing countries and call for no new oil and gas projects in a world of net zero emissions.

OPEC has repeatedly slammed the international agency for what the cartel says are “dangerous” predictions of peak oil demand by 2030.

Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman even called in 2021 the IEA’s Roadmap to Net Zero “La La Land”.

Now it’s the turn of the U.S. EIA to be replaced as a secondary source.

OPEC did not give explanations as to why it has decided to drop the U.S. energy administration from its pool of secondary sources providers.

At the Monday meeting of the JMMC, the OPEC+ panel reviewing policy and markets and potentially recommending actions to the group’s ministers to take, the committee said it would not recommend changes to the group’s current plans to begin gradually unwinding the cuts in April 2025.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/opec-drops-us-eia-secondary-source-assessing-oil-production