Sanctions Evasion Reference

De minimis rule

The principle that a foreign-made item becomes subject to US export controls when more than a threshold percentage of its value is US-origin controlled content.

reviewed

2026-08-20

De minimis is one of the two mechanisms that carry US jurisdiction into goods manufactured entirely abroad. Below the threshold the foreign item is outside the Export Administration Regulations; above it, the item and its onward movement are inside them.

Because the test is a percentage of value, it can be engineered. Published enforcement matter describes sourcing decisions taken specifically to keep controlled US content under a threshold, and the analytical response is to look at bills of materials rather than at the finished article’s declared origin.

Where this term is used

  • What is dual-use re-export diversion? — Buying controlled civil-use goods lawfully in an open market and re-exporting them to a restricted end user, exploiting the fact that the item itself looks entirely ordinary.
  • What is third-country transshipment? — Routing restricted goods through an intermediate country so that the shipment reaching the restricted destination appears to originate somewhere the exporter would have supplied without question.

Related terms

  • Re-export — The onward shipment of a controlled item from the country that first received it to a third country, which may itself require a licence from the original exporting state.
  • Foreign direct product rule — A rule making a foreign-made item subject to US export controls because it is the direct product of US-origin technology, software or production equipment.
  • Export control — A licensing regime that restricts the export, re-export or transfer of specified goods, software and technology by reference to the item, the destination and the end use.

Sources

  1. Entity List, Supplement No. 4 to Part 744 of the Export Administration Regulations. U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security, 2026.

All glossary terms