Will closing a US tax loophole that has saved millions for platforms like Shein and Temu have any impact?

WASHINGTON: When she was a freshman in high school, Emma Kim found herself unable to resist the prices on China-backed e-commerce platform Shein.
But she started doubting the quality of its clothes when a button fell off a shirt after one use. Her outfits also quickly started becoming uncomfortable to wear.
Now 19 and in college, Emma no longer buys from the fast fashion brand now based in Singapore. However, millions of her fellow Americans continue to shop on Shein and its competitor Temu, which is based in China.
Both platforms ship an estimated 1 million packages a day on average to the United States, according to parcel-shipping consultant ShipMatrix.
Instead of bringing bulk shipments into US warehouses, Shein and Temu ship small individual orders directly to American shoppers, allowing them to legally skip import duties. This is because US law exempts shipments under US$800 from tax.
Using the tax loophole saves foreign e-commerce platforms millions of dollars in import fees, which the White House has said undercuts American workers, retailers and manufacturers.
As the US prepares for the busiest shopping season of the year, it wants to close the loophole known as the de minimis exemption. Such a move will force retailers like Shein and Temu – two of the fastest growing retailers in the country – to pay duties on goods of any value. 
Proposals made by lawmakers in September to that end will not go into effect immediately – they will be subject to feedback from the industry before being finalised in the coming months.
In response to the proposals, both Shein and Temu said that the import loophole was not central to their success.
Shein said that its growth was anchored in its “on-demand business model”, while Temu said its “growth is not dependent on this policy”.
In the same vein, experts said the impact on the firms may be minimal.
“As a customer, if I’m buying a T-shirt for US$3 (and) I have to pay duties, the duties may be 10 per cent (or) 20 per cent. No big deal. In that case, the price is still much lower than other retailers’,” said distinguished professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management Christopher Tan.
However, the US is also concerned about another issue with regards to Temu: Data privacy concerns.
The firm is facing a lawsuit from southern state Arkansas’ Attorney General Tim Griffin, who is alleging that its app grants “itself access to virtually all data on a user’s cell phone”.
Temu has categorically denied these allegations which it says are “based on misinformation circulated online”. It added that it will vigorously defend itself.
American policymakers are concerned about data practices by companies and nations that have interests that are “not friendly to the US”, said John Verde, senior vice president of policy at US-based think tank Future Privacy Forum.
“We’ve all been in a circumstance where our mobile devices ask us whether or not we want to share certain information with an app or with a service,” he noted.
“When you have mobile applications that even in the face of consumers trying to deny these permissions, try to circumvent those permissions and try to get at that information, I think that’s what concerns some of the enforcement entities in the United States.”