Danish Postal Service Federation, European Cyclists’, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ahead of the August 29 implementation of President Trump’s executive order ending the de minimis exemption, which had allowed packages under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free, postal services in Britain, France, Germany, India, Belgium, Denmark, and New Zealand announced they will suspend shipments to the United States.
They claim confusion over the rules, though packages worth less than $100 remain exempt, something hardly difficult to understand. The timing suggests this is more political theater, an attempt by Europeans to pressure Washington into reducing tariffs on other products.
Trump signed the order on July 29 to combat China’s abuse of the system, particularly its use of low-value parcels to smuggle fentanyl and circumvent trade sanctions. U.S. Customs and Border Protection processed more than 4 million such packages daily. Closing the loophole prevents sanctioned Chinese goods from bypassing tariffs through postal networks.
Retail giants like Temu and Shein built their entire business model on exploiting de minimis, shipping 1.36 billion parcels in 2024, mostly from China and Hong Kong.
As carriers scramble to adjust their systems, letters and documents remain unaffected, but parcels to the U.S. face delays and backlogs until new procedures are clarified. Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Italy have already halted most package shipments, while France, Austria, the U.K., India, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia cite “lack of clarity” over how duties will be collected and what extra data is required.
In reality, the rules are straightforward. With the exception of personal gifts under $100, all shipments are now subject to country-of-origin tariffs. Transportation carriers are required to collect and remit duties to U.S. Customs and Border Protection using methods long in place. Postal shipments even have a grace period and remain duty-free until CBP establishes a new entry process.
The “confusion” argument doesn’t hold up. Postal services are essentially claiming they cannot: apply existing tariff rates already used for higher-value items, collect duties at delivery as they have always done, or submit customs data already required for international mail. This coordinated suspension looks less like confusion and more like economic pressure, an attempt to push the U.S. to delay or soften the policy.
Regular letters are unaffected, and express couriers like DHL Express continue operating, though at higher cost. DHL has openly stated it will continue delivering gifts under $100, proving it fully understands the rules. There is no reason global postal services cannot do the same. While the suspensions are likely temporary as carriers adjust, they also function as thinly veiled trade retaliation against a policy that closes a loophole long exploited by China.
President Trump’s national security and trade revenue case for closing the de minimis exclusion is very real. Yet Europeans complain it will now cost them a few extra cents to process a letter, symptomatic of the broader U.S.-Europe relationship, where much of the world expects America to accept national security risks and unfavorable trade terms, as it has since World War II.
A few years ago, China was shipping fentanyl directly to the U.S. in small parcels. Today, most fentanyl is manufactured in Mexico and smuggled across Biden’s open border by drug cartels, but the precursor chemicals still come from China. While tightly controlled inside China, these chemicals are exported with Beijing’s implicit involvement.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which controls both government and industry, has subsidized and incentivized Chinese chemical firms to export fentanyl and its precursors, fueling America’s synthetic opioid crisis.
Last fiscal year, CBP seized more than 21,000 pounds of fentanyl at the border, enough to kill over 4 billion people. Beijing has subsidized and incentivized the shipment of these chemicals, while Xi Jinping has assured President Trump he is doing everything possible to stop them. The claim is absurd.
The CCP runs the world’s most expansive surveillance state, controlling virtually every action of its citizens, dictating how many children they can have or how many dollars they can convert each year. For such a system to say it cannot halt fentanyl precursor exports is ludicrous.
The economic implications are equally staggering. Billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports entered the U.S. without paying duties under the de minimis loophole. That is why products ordered through Amazon, eBay, or other platforms were often dramatically cheaper but harder to return or resolve complaints on, they were being shipped directly by Chinese retailers bypassing U.S. customs.
These cheap products from China undermined American manufacturers, whose products were higher quality, came with warranties, and followed proper trade procedures.
China effectively weaponized e-commerce platforms like Temu and Shein, flooding the U.S. market with tariff-free goods while tightly restricting its own imports and allowing no similar leniency for American exporters.
The de minimis exemption systematically eroded U.S. trade policy and sanctions enforcement by encouraging the deliberate fragmentation of shipments. In resisting the rule change, European postal services are effectively helping preserve a system that allowed sanctioned trade to continue unimpeded.
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