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What Gallagher Left Undone: Temu Still Sends You a Slave-Sewn Dress for Just $15—Tax-Free – RedState
When the Wisconsin Republican congressman who chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, announced March 22 his retirement from Congress effective April 19—after the April 2 primary—instead of at the end of this congressional session, he did more than ensure Republicans could not replace him before January.
He left unfinished his work exposing the Chinese e-retailers Temu and Shein - work that started with a flourish.
“These results are shocking: Temu is doing next to nothing to keep its supply chains free from slave labor," said Rep. Michael J. Gallagher in his remarks at the June 23 release of the committee's report: "Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide: Interim Findings.” //
“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,” the Marine captain veteran of Iraq said. “We need to take a hard look at this loophole that is being abused to tilt the playing field against American companies.”
That tax loophole, the so-called “de minimus” rule, was first enacted in 1938 to allow Americans traveling abroad to mail home knick-knacks and souvenirs outside the regular tariffs on imports.
In 2015, Congress raised the tax-free limit from $200 to $800, which did not seem consequential at the time. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the online shopping boom, suddenly, that $800 limit was child's play for Temu and Shien, where some dresses cost less than $15.
The report found:
Key Finding 1: Temu and Shein alone are likely responsible for more than 30 percent of all packages shipped to the United States daily under the de minimis provision and likely nearly half of all de minimis shipments to the U.S. from China. //
Now, there are more than 685 million packages shipped every year, tax-free, because the import tax loophole exempts packages addressed to a residence. //
Key Finding 2: Temu’s business model, which relies on the de minimis provision, is to avoid bearing responsibility for compliance with the UFLPA and other prohibitions on forced labor while relying on tens of thousands of Chinese suppliers to ship goods direct to U.S. consumers.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act directs the Homeland Security Department’s Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force to maintain a list of entities in violation. //
For a long time, I have been obsessed with how the ChiComs exploit our open society and good nature to vacuum up as much of our data as they can. //
Now, I see that Gallagher is out the door, and Temu is still avoiding import tariffs, using slave labor, and swiping data.