While Britain’s proposals aren’t as stringent, some U.K. lawmakers are in favor of replicating the tougher American approach.
Shein and Temu review
As Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Shein gears up for a major listing on the London Stock Exchange, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a review of a tax loophole that many argue allows its business model, and that of fellow online giant Temu, to thrive.
The move could lead to a clampdown on de minimis rules, which currently allow the firms to import cheap packages into the U.K. without incurring duties.
The U.S. already cracked down on the $800 threshold that lets goods under that value enter the country tariff-free, though the Trump administration put the order on hold after more than a billion packages piled up at the border.
“As soon as the U.S. announced its clampdown, it almost prompted and nudged other countries to look at the rules,” said Susannah Streeter, head of markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. “It was only a matter of time until the U.K. government would look at tightening up this loophole.”
Before Trump entered office, Marco Rubio, a longtime critic of Shein and now U.S. secretary of state, warned the British government against the “trade tricks [which] are the dirty secrets behind Shein’s success.”
