New ‘de minimis’ tariff guidelines finish many parcel shipments to U.S. : NPR

A warehouse employee makes use of a scanner to establish cartons of parcels of products on a conveyor belt in a hangar at DHL’s parcel distribution and categorical freight warehouse in Valence, France, on December 12, 2024.

Nicolas Guyannet/Hans Lucas/AFP by way of Getty Images

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Nicolas Guyannet/Hans Lucas/AFP by way of Getty Images

Many European parcel firms — together with DHL, the Royal Mail, and the French and Spanish nationwide put up places of work — are briefly suspending some shipments to the U.S., citing new U.S. tariff insurance policies that kick on this week.

And whereas the monetary prices of tariffs have dominated commerce information this summer time, on this case, it isn’t a lot the cash because the paperwork that is a stumbling block.

An executive order from President Trump will finish the “de minimis” rule, which allowed particular person packages value lower than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free, efficient August 29. The “de minimis” rule (generally known as a loophole) had already been eradicated for China and Hong Kong, however is now being suspended for all international locations.

Letters usually are not affected by the brand new guidelines. Also, items value lower than $100 (and despatched between people, not from an organization) are exempt and may nonetheless be despatched. But packages from companies might be considerably affected. As NPR has beforehand reported, most packages shipped into the U.S. presently qualify for the “de minimis” exemption.

Removing the exemption raises prices for imported items. But that is not why put up places of work and parcel firms are urgent pause on some shipments — as an alternative, they’re citing ambiguous insurance policies and the necessity to set up brand-new logistics methods.

“Key questions remain unresolved,” writes DHL Group in a press release, “particularly regarding how and by whom customs duties will be collected in the future, what additional data will be required, and how the data transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will be carried out.

As a result, DHL Group says, it’s suspending business shipments to the U.S. through Deutsche Post and DHL Parcel Germany. The more expensive DHL Express service will remain an option.

DHL did not have an estimate of how long the pause would last, but said the goal “is to renew postal items transport to the U.S. as shortly as doable.”

The French postal service La Poste can be suspending shipments of goods to the U.S., telling France24 that European postal providers got “an extremely limited timeframe” to organize for the brand new guidelines, and that the insurance policies require “further clarification.” Spain’s Correos postal service can be suspending items shipments for now, saying the brand new insurance policies and their quick timeframe for implementation are having a “significant impact” on worldwide postal logistics.

The Royal Mail, in the meantime, predicted solely a quick disruption of 1-2 days because it establishes new services that can calculate and bill firms for the tariffs.

In a reality sheet published last month, the White House known as “de minimis” remedy a “catastrophic loophole” and a “big scam,” arguing that it not solely reduces tariff income however permits the importation of illicit medication, as a result of “de minimis” items additionally get expedited processing, which means much less oversight of the products coming in.

There’s bipartisan help for proscribing or eliminating “de minimis” shipments. The Biden administration, too, had raised concerns about medication and unsafe merchandise slipping into the nation. Some U.S. firms have additionally argued that it offers an unfair benefit to international producers over American firms by permitting a simple technique to bypass tariffs.

The duty-free shipments do have some defenders. The Cato Institute, a libertarian assume tank, has argued that eliminating de minimis shipments would harm poorer Americans essentially the most and — presaging the complications that logistics firms are encountering this week — can be “an administrative nightmare.”