It’s a “loophole” because the system didn’t anticipate that consumers could basically place all their orders directly from suppliers halfway across the world, a

It’s a “loophole” because the system didn’t anticipate that consumers could basically place all their orders directly from suppliers halfway across the world, and that shipping would become inefficient that individual goods could be delivered for pennies. The exemption existed for stuff like samples, initial batches, one-off items, etc. not so the entire industry could run off these exemptions.