The US tariff exemption for low-value items shipped from abroad has ended.
That means that all goods sent to the United States now attract tariffs as of Friday at 12.01 a.m (0401 UTC/GMT).
For the next six months, postal service shippers can opt to pay a flat duty of $80 (€69) to $200 per package depending on the country of origin, Trump administration officials said.
The de minimis exemption, which allowed items worth $800 or less to be shipped to the US duty free, had been in place since 1938.
The number of de minimis packages entering the US skyrocketed from 140 million in 2014 to 1.36 billion packages by 2024, according to the US Customs and Border Protection agency.
Critics say the flood of low-value imports hurts US retailers, means potentially unsafe items could flow unchecked into the country and makes it easier to ship fentanyl and other drugs into the United States.
US President Donald Trump had already stopped the exemption for China back in February. Now it is ended for all countries.
All imports to US subject to duties
Full tariff rates will now apply to all packages shipped by express carriers such as FedEx, United Parcel Service and DHL, with the firms collecting the duties and processing the paperwork.
Foreign postal agencies have two options. They can collect and process the duties based on the value of the package contents or opt for the flat rate method by collecting a flat tax based on Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff rates currently in place on goods from the country of origin.
Based on US customs guidance, parcels would be charged $80 from countries with Trump-imposed duty rates below 16%, such as the United Kingdom and the members of the European Union.
Countries paying between 16% and 25% tariffs, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, would be charged $160.
Those paying above 25% tariffs, including China, Brazil and India, would pay $200.
After the six-month transition period, postal services must shift to collecting the duties on the full value of the product by February 28, 2026.
Foreign postal companies suspend deliveries to US
From Asia to Europe and Latin America, dozens of foreign postal companies have suspended the shipping of parcels to the United States.
They say they didn’t have enough time to prepare for the changes, such as how they collect the duties and what documentation is needed, after Trump signed an order in July abolishing the de minimis exemption.
The list of postal services that have announced a halt to parcel shipping for business customers to the US includes Mexico, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, India and Switzerland.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
