Toy Association Statement on de Minimis Exemption

The Toy Association and its members applaud The Biden Harris Administration’s announcement imposing restrictions designed to curtail abuse of de minimis exemption, which will help protect American consumers, workers, retailers, importers, and manufacturers. Products coming directly from outside the U.S. and shipped directly to consumers through third party platforms using the de minimis exemption appeal to consumers because they are often cheap, but they may include counterfeit, infringing items and in the case of toys, may fail to meet strict U.S. safety standards.

The toy industry works year-round with government agencies and leading e-commerce platforms to combat the issue of counterfeit products. All toys sold in the U.S., regardless of where they are made, must comply with strict U.S. standards – and it is the responsibility of the companies’ selling products in this country to make sure that their toys are safe. Required testing and certification by government-accredited, independent testing laboratories verifies a toy’s compliance with our country’s strict federal regulations. The recent actions announced by the White House will help ensure that products imported into the U.S. using de minimis meet these safety requirements.