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Small packages are causing big problems in the US

E-commerce has become a pathway for drugs, banned products and counterfeit goods.

E-commerce has radically increased the number of small international shipments.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS

Rana Foroohar

This week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, which brings together 21 nations in the Pacific region,

including the US and China,

will cover any number of predictable topics, from trade relations to currency and debt issues. It will also cover an unexpected one: fentanyl. The highly addictive narcotic is responsible for some 70,000 drug-related deaths in the United States. But it has also become an unexpected window into global supply chains and how they work – or don’t – in an era of deglobalisation.

Over the past few weeks, business leaders and politicians have been talking about

how fentanyl is making its way into the US,

and other countries like Mexico, via small shipments of goods in amounts worth less than US$800 (S$1,088) that aren’t subject to the usual trade and Customs barriers.

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E-commerce

Smuggling

Trade