U.S. Postal Service (USPS) vehicles are parked at a put up workplace on August 23, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Pictures
Postal providers the world over are halting shipments to the US this week amid mounting confusion over new import duties that can apply to parcels beginning Friday.
President Donald Trump signed an govt order final month abolishing the commerce loophole often called “de minimis,” which since 2016 had allowed items price as much as $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free.
The tip of the exemption is being prolonged worldwide after the loophole was closed in Might for packages from mainland China and Hong Kong.
Below the brand new guidelines, private presents price lower than $100 will nonetheless be duty-free, however all different packages will face the identical tariffs as normal imports from their nation of origin.
The deliberate coverage shift, which operators say lacks clear procedures, has raised considerations about backlogs as providers are placed on maintain.
Postal suppliers in Belgium, Denmark and New Zealand are amongst a number of operators which have already suspended shipments of packages to the U.S. till they will retool their techniques to adjust to the brand new guidelines. Letters and paperwork are usually unaffected.
Providers in Germany, France, Britain and India have introduced they may comply with go well with within the coming days.
France’s nationwide postal service, La Poste, stated in a press release that the U.S. didn’t present full particulars or enable sufficient time to organize for brand new customs procedures. New Zealand’s postal service stated parcel deliveries to all U.S. states and territories can be “quickly unavailable till additional discover” whereas techniques are up to date to fulfill new U.S. customs necessities.
DHL, one of many world’s largest courier corporations, stated Friday that it’s going to cease accepting parcels containing items from enterprise clients destined for the U.S. starting Monday.
The corporate cited unresolved “key questions” concerning the course of, together with “how and by whom customs duties might be collected sooner or later, what further knowledge might be required, and the way the info transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Safety might be carried out.”
DHL will, nevertheless, proceed to ship non-public parcels labeled as presents valued beneath $100, according to White Home assurances.
The White Home stated ending the duty-free exemption would assist fight “escalating misleading transport practices, unlawful materials, and responsibility circumvention,” claiming some shippers had “abused” the exemption to ship illicit medicine similar to fentanyl into the U.S.
It stated the variety of de minimis parcels jumped from 134 million in 2015 to greater than 1.36 billion in 2024 as shippers “deceptively exploit the de minimis privilege in an effort to evade duties, inspection, and U.S. regulation.”
Most of these packages got here from mainland China and Hong Kong, which the Trump administration initially focused as a part of efforts to curb American customers from ordering low-value items from China-linked retailers similar to Temu and Shein.
The White Home briefly closed the loophole for mainland China and Hong Kong in February, however rapidly prolonged the deadline to Might 2 amid confusion over how the brand new duties can be collected.
