The US government on Friday ended the ‘de minimis’ exemption that allowed goods less than $800 to be shipped to the US duty-free, without the need to pay tariffs. With this, over 30 countries have announced halting of postal services to the US, citing that they do not have the system needed to process tariffs and pay them to the US Customs and Border Protection.

The Universal Postal Union said that 25 of its member countries have notified that they have suspended outbound postal services to the US(AFP/Representational Image) The Universal Postal Union said that 25 of its member countries have notified that they have suspended outbound postal services to the US(AFP/Representational Image)

The Universal Postal Union, which is an organisation promoting cooperation between postal services of 192 members, said that the decision to end the de minimis exemption will “entail considerable operational changes.”

It also said that 25 of its member countries have already said that they have suspended their outbound postal services to the US, citing uncertainties related to transit services.

Countries that have halted shipments to the US

Thirty countries have suspended their postal services to the United States. These include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Thailand. In addition, Mexico’s postal service announced on Thursday that it is halting package deliveries to the U.S.

DHL Group, a part of German Deutsche Post, also confirmed that they have imposed “probably temporary” restrictions on business shipments to the US due to uncertainties about customs duties collection and data requirements. The Swedish and Danish government-owned PostNord also came up with a similar announcement related to temporarily halted shipments to the US, citing insufficient time to adapt to the new customs requirements.

France’s La Poste suspended standard parcel shipments to the U.S. for businesses on August 22. Government-owned Australia Post followed a similar move by temporarily suspending parcel shipments to the US and further assured that it is working with U.S. and Australian authorities to resume services.

India Post also suspended all categories of mail to the US worth up $100, citing carriers’ inability to transport US-bound mail and the absence of clear regulatory mechanisms.

Impact of the suspension of services

Customers are likely to be impacted the most due halting of postal services to the US. Cornell Professor Li Chen told AFP that there will be delays in parcel delivery because now all the parcels have to clear customs. From the side of businesses, small businesses will get impacted more, as larger companies tend to be more diversified and can absorb the shock, he said further. US e-commerce platforms such as Etsy and eBay have begun posting notices to inform customers about potential shipping disruptions.

The Trump administration tightened regulations on the de minimis exemption, arguing that it has allowed traffickers to easily ship fentanyl into the United States.

(With inputs from agencies)