The situation: The so-called de minimis trade loophole, which lets foreign packages under $800 enter the US tariff-free, closes Friday, August 29. The White House already ended the exemption for shipments from China and Hong Kong on May 2.

Companies have had little time to prepare since President Donald Trump signed the executive order in late July. Many are now scrambling to adjust.

Rampant confusion: Several national mail services worldwide have suspended deliveries to the US as they struggle to process millions of low-value packages losing duty-free status, Bloomberg reports.

• The new system—already in place for China and Hong Kong shipments since May—keeps verifiable gifts under $100 duty-free, while all other items face tariffs and must comply with US Customs and Border Protection rules.
• A growing number of national mail services—including Korea Post, Norway and Finland’s carriers, and Deutsche Post and DHL Parcel Germany—plan to halt US-bound deliveries, citing uncertainty over duty collection and required data submissions.

The fallout goes beyond mail carriers. Starting today, online marketplace Etsy Inc. will suspend its shipping label service for national mail carriers in Australia, Canada, and the UK for packages headed to the US. The company urged sellers to use carriers that allow duties to be paid upfront, such as UPS and FedEx, noting it expects postal carriers and other providers to roll out Delivered Duty Paid options in the coming months.

Potential winners: The de minimis crackdown—paired with the Trump administration’s unpredictable trade policies—has fueled a boom in two types of workaround facilities: bonded warehouses and foreign trade zones (FTZ).

• Bonded warehouses are federally licensed facilities where goods can be stored without immediate tariffs, deferring duty payments for up to five years.
• Foreign trade zones let importers store goods and defer duties until items are sold, typically applying the tariff rate in place when the goods entered the FTZ.

Logistics company ShipBob has more than doubled its FTZ-designated warehouse space and plans to “significantly” expand again in the next three to six months, co-founder and COO Divey Gulati told The Wall Street Journal. The surge reflects rising demand from merchants once reliant on de minimis.

Our take: With no end to tariff-related instability in sight, companies must find ways to adapt to an uncertain trade landscape. It’s become a business imperative.