HONG KONG: The USA Postal Service (USPS) mentioned on Wednesday (Feb 5) it could 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 bundle supply,” it mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday.
The Trump administration imposed an extra 10 per cent tariff on Chinese language items and closed the “de minimis” exemption that enables US customers to keep away from paying tariffs for shipments under US$800 from China.
USPS didn’t instantly touch upon whether or not its momentary suspension had been tied to Trump’s order ending de minimis shipments from China, which was introduced on Saturday and got here into power from one minute previous midnight on Tuesday.
“There has actually been completely zero time for anybody to organize for this,” mentioned Maureen Cori, co-founder at New York-based consultancy Provide Chain Compliance.
“What we actually want is path from the federal government on the way to deal with this with out warning or discover.”
At the moment, de minimis parcels are consolidated in order that customs can clear a whole lot or hundreds of shipments directly, however they may now require particular person clearances, considerably growing the burden for postal companies, brokers and customs brokers, mentioned Cori.
The supply was initially supposed as a technique to streamline commerce, and its use has surged with the rise in on-line buying.
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.
