Buying from KoreaOct 10, 2026

The $800 De Minimis Rule Is Gone: What It Means for Orders From Korea

The US ended duty-free entry for packages under $800 in August 2025. A dated timeline through October 2026 and what it changes for parcels from Korea.

The $800 duty-free allowance for packages entering the United States ended for every country on August 29, 2025, and it is not coming back on its current path. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made the suspension indefinite by regulation in June 2026, and Congress has already repealed the underlying exemption effective July 1, 2027. For a parcel from Korea, that means duty is owed on any purchase of any value, and someone has to pay it before the package is released.

Below is what changed and when, how it played out for Korean mail, and what you should check on your next order.

What the rule was

Under 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C), CBP could admit a shipment free of duty and with minimal paperwork if it was worth $800 or less. This was the de minimis exemption. It is the reason an overseas order used to simply show up at your door.

Two related exemptions in the same statute were not suspended. CBP's FAQ confirms that the exemption for bona fide gifts and the one for personal articles accompanying travelers are unchanged. A purchase is not a gift, which we return to below.

Timeline: August 2025 to October 2026

Date	What happened
July 2025	The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is enacted. It repeals the statutory de minimis exemption effective July 1, 2027.
July 30, 2025	Executive Order 14324 suspends duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries.
August 25 to 26, 2025	Korea Post stops accepting US-bound air parcels, then EMS items containing goods, saying it cannot yet handle the new duty collection. Dozens of other postal operators do the same.
August 29, 2025	The suspension takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern. Postal items become dutiable under one of two temporary methods (see below).
September 22, 2025	Korea Post resumes US-bound EMS, international parcels and K-Packet, with the sender prepaying the duty.
February 20, 2026	After the Supreme Court rules against tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a new executive order continues the de minimis suspension for all countries.
February 24, 2026	IEEPA duties stop being collected. A 10% surcharge under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 starts and is set to run 150 days.
End of February 2026	The six-month window for the flat per-item postal duty closes. Postal duty is ad valorem only from here.
June 24, 2026	CBP announces interim final rules that indefinitely suspend the exemption by regulation, for postal and non-postal shipments.
July 24, 2026	The new postal informal entry process takes effect. The Section 122 surcharge expires the same day and Section 301 duties on imports from 60 economies begin.
October 22, 2026	Compliance date for the remaining postal provisions, which exclude certain categories of mail from the simplified process.
July 1, 2027	The statutory repeal takes effect.

The two postal methods of 2025

Executive Order 14324 gave carriers of international mail two ways to assess duty on a postal item:

Ad valorem: a duty equal to the effective IEEPA tariff rate for the product's country of origin, applied to the value.
Specific: a flat amount per item, set at $80 for countries with an effective rate under 16 percent, $160 for rates from 16 to 25 percent, and $200 for rates above 25 percent.

The flat option was available only for six months from the effective date. After that, the order required all postal shipments to use the ad valorem method.

What replaced the IEEPA rates

The duty rate on a small parcel has had three different legal bases in about a year: IEEPA rates until February 2026, the 10% Section 122 surcharge until July 24, 2026, and Section 301 duties since then. According to law firm summaries of the US Trade Representative's action, products of South Korea and Japan are now assessed the higher of 12.5% or their normal duty rate, with certain goods excluded.

The practical lesson is that the rate has moved repeatedly while the core fact has not. Low-value parcels have been dutiable without interruption since August 29, 2025.

What it did to parcels from Korea

Mail stopped, then came back on different terms. Korea Post halted US-bound parcels in the last week of August 2025. Global Trade Alert, which tracked the suspensions, counted 71 postal operators that suspended or restricted service to the US and lists Korea among the few that had lifted the suspension by early October 2025.

The sender now pays at the counter. When service resumed on September 22, 2025, Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Korea Post would charge the sender the applicable US tariff, working with a CBP-approved customs broker, so the item clears as delivered duty paid. The same report described a small base processing fee plus a fee calculated as a share of the tariff for most parcels valued between $100 and $800. Check Korea Post's current notice for today's figures.

Express couriers kept flying, with fees. FedEx, UPS and DHL never stopped, but every parcel now needs a customs entry. If the sender has not arranged to pay the duty, the courier pays CBP and bills the recipient, usually with its own service fee on top.

Prices and policies shifted to the seller side. Because duty on Korean mail is collected in Korea, many sellers folded it into prices or added a line at checkout. Others ship by courier with duties unpaid and leave the bill to you. Listings rarely make the difference obvious, which is why asking before you pay matters more than it used to.

What you need to know now

There is no safe value

A $15 order and a $750 order are treated the same in principle. Both need an entry and both owe whatever duty applies to the product and its country of origin.

Country of origin is where it was made

Duty depends on where the product was manufactured. Shipping a Chinese-made or Japanese-made item from Korea does not make it Korean for customs purposes.

"Gift" does not rescue a purchase

CBP's FAQ says a bona fide gift must be given outright without compensation and that purchased items and bonus articles do not qualify. A seller who offers to mark your order as a gift is offering to make a false declaration with your name on the package.

Paperwork errors now stop packages

CBP's FAQ states that mail shipments arriving without the required data or bond will not be released from custody until the requirements are met. Before 2025 a low-value parcel with a vague declaration usually sailed through. Now a missing classification or origin can hold it. See what to do when a package is stuck in customs.

Ask who pays, in writing

The single most useful question is whether the order ships with duties prepaid. The terms sellers use for this are explained in DDP vs DDU.

Expect the rate to change again

The suspension itself is stable. The rate layered on top is not. The Section 301 duties are being challenged in court, and a separate Section 301 investigation was still pending when those duties took effect. Treat any percentage you read, including the one in this article, as a snapshot.

Will the $800 rule return?

Nothing on the public record points that way. The executive suspension was renewed in February 2026, CBP's June 2026 rules describe the suspension as indefinite, and the statute that created the exemption is scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2027. As of October 2026, no replacement threshold has been announced.

How this affects an order from us

The K Drop ships from Korea to the US with tracking, and you pay no additional duties or fees when the package arrives, because that is taken care of before shipping. You can see what is currently available on the cards page.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. For a specific shipment, confirm with CBP or a licensed customs broker.