HONG KONG: America Postal Service (USPS) stated on Wednesday (Feb 5) it will settle for parcels from China and Hong Kong, U-turning on an preliminary suspension it introduced on Tuesday.
USPS’ earlier halt adopted President Donald Trump’s ending of a commerce provision utilized by retailers together with Temu, Shein, and Amazon to ship low-value packages duty-free to the US.
“The USPS and Customs and Border Safety are working intently collectively to implement an environment friendly assortment mechanism for the brand new China tariffs to make sure the least disruption to package deal supply,” it stated in an announcement on Wednesday.
The Trump administration imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese language items and closed the “de minimis” exemption that enables US consumers to keep away from paying tariffs for shipments under US$800 from China.
USPS didn’t instantly touch upon whether or not its short-term suspension had been tied to Trump’s order ending de minimis shipments from China, which was introduced on Saturday and got here into drive from one minute previous midnight on Tuesday.
“There has actually been completely zero time for anybody to organize for this,” stated Maureen Cori, co-founder at New York-based consultancy Provide Chain Compliance.
“What we actually want is course from the federal government on easy methods to deal with this with out warning or discover.”
At present, de minimis parcels are consolidated in order that customs can clear a whole lot or 1000’s of shipments directly, however they are going to now require particular person clearances, considerably rising the burden for postal companies, brokers and customs brokers, stated Cori.
The supply was initially supposed as a strategy to streamline commerce, and its use has surged with the rise in on-line purchasing.
About 1.36 billion shipments entered the US utilizing the de minimis provision in 2024, up 36 per cent from 2023, in accordance with US Customs and Border Safety knowledge.
