New tariffs cripple small package shipments to the US

“Mail shipments from around the world to the United States have fallen by 81% since President Trump eliminated the de minimis exception that allowed small packages worth less than $800 [€682] to be exempt from customs duties,” according to data from the United Nations postal agency, reported by The Hill .

The end of the exemption, announced on July 30, took effect on August 29. Meanwhile, 88 delivery services located around the world, including those of La Poste in France, Deutsche Post in Germany, and Correos de Mexico in Mexico, have suspended their operations to the United States pending further details on the implementation arrangements.

“One of the reasons for this sharp drop in traffic is that duties on low-value packages were to be collected by new intermediaries.” However, airlines have warned that they refuse to assume this responsibility. The UN agency announced on Saturday, September 6, that it was taking charge of “developing a 'new technical solution' to ensure the collection of duties,” the Washington-based media continues.

Data from the 192 member countries of the UN Universal Postal Union, according to which traffic “fell by 81%” on Friday, August 29, compared to the previous Friday, “underscores the turbulence that accompanies this change in rules,” notes The Washington Post . The “confusion” that has gripped operators, continues the American daily, is explained in particular by the “speed” with which the new measure was implemented , the UN agency argued to the American authorities.

Mail traffic to the United States “virtually stopped after August 29,” a month after President Trump signed his executive order “suspending the de minimis rule for all imports into the United States,” NPR reports .

The lifting of the exemption was intended, according to the Trump administration, to “ fight the trade deficit and illegal activities by preventing the entry into the United States of counterfeit products or fentanyl,” a synthetic opioid, recalls American public radio. It also aimed to curb the surge in deliveries to the United States from the two ultra-ephemeral Chinese ready-to-wear giants Temu and Shein.