The US Postal Service has reversed yesterday’s shock choice to cease accepting inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong. It will proceed to simply accept worldwide shipments from the 2 nations, although it warns of “disruption” to deliveries.
USPS beforehand introduced that it was briefly halting all packages shipped from China and Hong Kong. The choice got here within the wake of President Donald Trump’s government order revoking the de minimis exemption for shipments from China. It implies that parcels valued under $800 at the moment are eligible for US import duties and import taxes, together with the brand new 10 % tariff utilized to all items from China.
In an announcement, USPS says it can “proceed accepting all worldwide inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts.” The service additionally notes that it’s working carefully with US Customs and Border Protection to “implement an environment friendly assortment mechanism for the brand new China tariffs to make sure the least disruption to package deal supply.”
Neither UPS nor FedEx had introduced restrictions on shipments from China within the wake of the brand new government order, however each courier and transport firm must develop new processes to examine a big quantity of Chinese shipments and acquire responsibility and tariffs. Delays are doubtless, as are elevated prices for transport, however the full affect of the change stays unclear.
There had been over 1.3 billion parcels shipped into the US underneath the de minimis exemption in 2024, although not all from China, so the dimensions of the issue is gigantic. The loophole was common with e-commerce corporations together with Temu, Shein, and Amazon, permitting them to ship low-cost items on to customers whereas avoiding import duties.
Today the European Commission renewed requires the EU to implement its personal customs reform that will take away its duty-free exemption for packages valued under €150, and additional recommended making use of a dealing with charge for e-commerce shipments imported on to customers as a method of recouping the prices of inspecting and processing the parcels.
