Postal services across Europe have suspended most parcel shipments to the United States, citing confusion and a lack of clarity over new import tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump.
On Monday, France’s La Poste confirmed it had joined Germany’s Deutsche Post, Spain’s Correos, Poste Italiane, and postal operators in Belgium, Sweden and Denmark in halting the majority of shipments bound for the US. Austria’s Österreichische Post and the UK’s Royal Mail said they would stop accepting parcels on Tuesday, to allow packages already in transit to arrive before the tariffs come into force at the end of August.
The move follows an executive order signed by President Trump last month, abolishing from 29 August a long-standing tax exemption that permitted small packages worth less than $800 to enter the US duty-free. The exemption, known as the “de minimis” rule, has been heavily used by small European businesses to export lower-value goods across the Atlantic.
According to US Customs, 1.36 billion packages worth $64.6 billion were imported under the scheme last year. From the end of August, such parcels will be subject to a 15 per cent tariff, in line with most other imports from the European Union.
Analysts have warned that the change could hit small and medium-sized European exporters hardest, many of whom rely on lower-value shipments to reach US customers.
European operators said they would continue to deliver letters and small parcels sent by individuals containing gifts worth under €100, but warned these would face stricter checks to prevent the system from being used for commercial goods.
What DHL, owner of Deutsche Post, said
The companies blamed both the lack of time to prepare and uncertainty over how the tariffs would be applied. “Key questions remain, particularly regarding who will have to pay the tariffs and how, what additional data will be required, and how data will be transmitted to US Customs,” DHL, which owns Deutsche Post, said. The logistics group added that it was no longer accepting or transporting goods sent by business customers to the US.
La Poste, which sends around 1.6 million parcels to the US each year, said 80 per cent came from businesses and 20 per cent from individuals. It noted that confirmation of the new rules had only been received from US authorities on 15 August, leaving “an extremely limited timeframe to get prepared”.
Poste Italiane said it had been “forced to temporarily suspend acceptance of all shipments containing merchandise destined for the US”. Nordic logistics company PostNord described its own pause as “unfortunate but necessary”.
The Dutch postal operator PostNL warned that while Washington was pressing ahead with the tariffs, US authorities had yet to put in place a system to collect them. Royal Mail expressed hope that the suspension would last only a few days.
PostEurop, which represents 51 European public postal operators, said that unless a workable solution was found before 29 August, all members would be likely to suspend the bulk of parcel shipments to the US.
