By Casey Hall and Lisa Barrington<\/p>\n
SHANGHAI\/SEOUL (Reuters) -Air cargo shipment volume from Asia has declined by double digits since the U.S. cancelled a tax-free exemption for low-value packages from China early in May, trade groups and analysts said.<\/p>\n
Air cargo demand from Asia to North America declined 10.7% in May versus the same month a year earlier, showed data from the International Air Transport Association, illustrating “the dampening effect of shifting U.S. trade policies,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh said in a report published on Monday.<\/p>\n
Shipments valued under $800 – often sent by air to U.S. customers of low-cost e-commerce platforms such as Shein and PDD’s Temu – fall under the so-called de minimis, or too-small-to-matter, tax exemption.<\/p>\n
Since May 2, however, such shipments sent from China and Hong Kong have been taxed at a rate initially as high as 145% before settling to as low as 30% after a mid-May trade detente between the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n
FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows U.S. and Chinese flags and “tariffs” label <\/p>\n
The pair continue to negotiate on trade, with the U.S. relaxing export restrictions on software, ethane and aerospace to China this week, ahead of July 9 when the U.S. plans to re-impose a range of steep tariffs targeting multiple countries.<\/p>\n
The volume of low-value e-commerce shipments from China to the United States in May saw a particularly steep decline, industry experts said.<\/p>\n
Such shipments fell 43% in May from the previous month, showed estimates from air cargo consultancy Aevean, but rose to other main export markets including Europe and South-East Asia.<\/p>\n
It is not clear whether such dramatic declines will continue, said Aevean Managing Director Marco Bloemen, given businesses had anticipated the de minimis halt and because the tariff rate was lowered mid-month.<\/p>\n
“Will those e-commerce players bounce back to the U.S. now they’re paying 30% duties instead of zero duties?” Bloemen said. Companies turning to other markets due to U.S. trade policy uncertainty is also likely weighing on shipment volume, he said.<\/p>\n
“That’s a trend that we’re expecting to continue – there’s more Europe-destined e-commerce expected in the month of June, also to markets like Latin America.”<\/p>\n
Air cargo consultancy Rotate said e-commerce platforms were focusing on other markets to replace lost U.S. demand, with significant export growth to the European Union and Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n
Shein and PDD did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.<\/p>\n
CARGO CUT-BACKS<\/p>\n
Low-value e-commerce out of Asia has been taking an increasing proportion of global air freight and boosting airlines’ cargo businesses.<\/p>\n
Leer m\u00e1s <\/p>\n
Last year such shipments – at 1.2 million metric tons – made up 55% of goods shipped from China to the U.S. by air compared to just 5% in 2018, Aevean data showed.<\/p>\n
As Asia-to-U.S. demand fell in May, airlines pulled freighter aircraft off trans-Pacific routes and placed them elsewhere, industry experts said.<\/p>\n
Some of that demand has now returned as companies take advantage of tariff pauses between the U.S. and a number of countries, but flight frequencies are reduced, they said.<\/p>\n
“Some of the larger players that were chartering three flights a week have cut back to two,” said e-commerce consultancy Cirrus Global Advisors.<\/p>\n
Direct freighter capacity between China and the U.S. in June was 11% lower compared to March, wiping out growth in capacity over the past year on those lanes, Rotate data showed.<\/p>\n
Asia-focused freight forwarder Dimerco Express estimated its e-commerce bookings were down 50% in May and June. As a result, scheduled freighter flights continue to be cancelled, it said in a report.<\/p>\n
The de minimis rule, which dates to 1938, had been a target of criticism from American lawmakers as a loophole that lets Chinese products skirt U.S. tariffs and allows illegal drugs and precursors to make opioid fentanyl to enter the U.S. unscreened.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Casey Hall and Lisa Barrington; Editing by Christopher Cushing)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Casey Hall and Lisa Barrington SHANGHAI\/SEOUL (Reuters) -Air cargo shipment volume from Asia has declined by double…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[30417,64,74,79,30416,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-37527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-air-cargo","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-international-air-transport-association","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114793894716784443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}