Postal services in Europe suspend parcel shipments to US amid uncertainty over tariffs | Tariffs

Postal companies throughout Europe have suspended most parcel shipments to the US, citing widespread uncertainty in regards to the impression of recent import tariffs introduced by Donald Trump.France’s La Poste on Monday joined different operators, together with Germany’s Deutsche Put up, Spain’s Correos, Poste Italiane and the Belgian, Swedish and Danish postal companies, which all halted a majority of US-bound shipments over the weekend.Austria’s Österreichische Put up and the UK’s Royal Mail stated they might cease accepting packages on Tuesday, to permit sufficient time for packages posted earlier than then to reach within the US earlier than the tariffs, scheduled to come back into power on the finish of August, kick in.The US president final month signed an govt order abolishing from 29 August a tax exemption that allowed small packages price lower than $800 – the popular possibility for a lot of small European companies – to enter the US duty-free.A complete of 1.36bn packages had been despatched final yr beneath the so-called “de minimis” exemption, containing items price $64.6bn, based on US Customs, however such parcels will now face a 15% tariff – the identical fee as most different imports from the EU.Analysts have stated that the regulatory modifications, if they’re maintained, are more likely to have a substantial impression, notably on small and medium-sized European corporations exporting lower-value items to the US.European postal companies stated they might proceed to ship letters and parcels despatched by people containing items price lower than €100, however warned that these can be topic to additional checks to forestall the service getting used for business items.The operators blamed widespread uncertainty about how the brand new tariffs would work, in addition to an absence of time to organize.“Key questions stay, notably concerning who should pay the tariffs and the way, what further information shall be required, and the way information shall be transmitted to US Customs,” stated DHL, Europe’s largest logistics firm, which owns Deutsche Put up.The corporate stated it was now not “accepting or transporting parcels and postal objects containing items from enterprise prospects destined for the US”.La Poste, which sends 1.6m packages on common to the US annually, 80% of them from companies and 20% from people, stated the brand new guidelines had been confirmed by US authorities solely on 15 August.The late announcement had left European postal companies with “an especially restricted timeframe to get ready. Furthermore, the principles’ associated documentation nonetheless requires additional clarification,” the French operator stated.skip previous e-newsletter promotionSign as much as Headlines EuropeA digest of the morning’s most important headlines from the Europe version emailed direct to you each week dayPrivacy Discover: Newsletters might include information about charities, on-line adverts, and content material funded by outdoors events. For extra data see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after e-newsletter promotionPoste Italiane stated it had been “pressured to quickly droop acceptance of all shipments containing merchandise destined for the US”. The Nordic logistics firm PostNord stated the the pause was “unlucky however obligatory”.The Dutch postal service, PostNL, stated the Trump administration was urgent forward with the brand new duties regardless of US authorities missing a system to gather them, whereas Royal Mail stated it hoped the interruption would final just a few days.PostEurop, an affiliation of 51 European public postal operators, stated that if no sensible options could possibly be discovered earlier than 29 August, it was possible that every one its members would droop the majority of parcel shipments to the US.With Agence-France Presse and Related Press