Here’s how it works: An e-commerce company in China might first import products to Mexico and store them in a warehouse there. duty-free, as long as they’re shipped directly to individual customers. customs exemption known as the “de minimis threshold.” The rule, also referred to as Section 321, stipulates that packages worth less than $800 can be imported to the U.S. Omar MartínezĪfter the Trump administration began imposing new tariffs on Chinese goods three years ago, some online sellers began relying on a U.S.
The Tijuana fulfillment center will service Amazon customers in the city and nearby markets like Mexicali, Tecate, Ensenada, and Rosarito. “Our fulfillment center in Tijuana and any others located in Mexico support the fulfillment to our customers in Mexico ONLY – full stop,” they said in an email.īut in recent years, many other e-commerce companies have shifted their supply chains to places like Canada and Mexico - Tijuana in particular has become a hub for new warehouses. Given Amazon’s penchant for avoiding taxes and its reputation for mistreating workers, some observers suggested that the company might use the facility to ship packages across the border to customers in the U.S., saving on labor costs and avoiding tariffs in the process.īut what the viral image of the Tijuana warehouse actually reveals is just how rapidly international e-commerce is evolving, thanks to the double shock of the U.S.-China trade war and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.Ī policy spokesperson for Amazon told Rest of World that “under no circumstances” are warehouses in Mexico used to deliver goods to shoppers in the U.S. Online commenters, like Charmaine Chua, a professor who studies global supply chains at the University of California, Santa Barbara, soon began speculating about why the e-commerce giant had chosen such a conspicuous site for the warehouse, located less than a half-hour drive from another new Amazon fulfillment center in San Diego. The pictures, taken by photographer Omar Martínez, depict Amazon’s signature arrow logo towering over makeshift homes made out of tarps and scrapwood - to many, a dystopian symbol of modern inequality. Stark photos of a new Amazon warehouse in Tijuana standing directly beside a dilapidated housing development with dirt roads have gone viral over the last few days.