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European regulators are looking at ways to tackle the surging flow of goods entering the bloc under the de minimis rule, as concerns rise over eroding product standards.
With President Trump removing the US de minimis exemption for goods from China – since suspended as parcels piled up – Europe’s efforts have somewhat gone ignored.
But last week, legislators in Brussels announced the intention to remove the EU de minimis exemption, for goods valued at less than €150, replacing it with a “handling fee”.
The EC said: “In light of the enormous increase in volumes in a short space of time, which continue to grow and show no sign of abating, the EC stands ready to work with co-legislators to ‘front-load’ to 2026 the customs reform.”
Much like in the US, the EU has experienced an explosion in low-value goods, hitting 4.6bn last year, the equivalent of 12 million a day.
That figure was nearly double 2023’s 2.4bn and triple the 1.4bn recorded in 2022, the bulk, 91%, coming from China – up to 4.17bn in 2024.
“The rapid increase of imports shipped directly to consumers raises significant challenges that require urgent attention,” said the EC. “Surging volumes of unsafe, counterfeit, or otherwise non-compliant [products] leads to serious safety and health risks, an unsustainable impact on the environment, and fuels unfair competition.”
It added: “The sheer number of products imported directly by consumers in the EU also puts an unsustainable strain on authorities.”
Details of the proposed handling fee have not been announced, but legislators appear keen to develop a harmonised response across the 27 member states.
Enthusiasm for the rule change also appears geared towards supporting SMEs currently struggling against Chinese competition.
A report by the EC noted: “There are direct losses incurred by law-abiding businesses. When an SME is the victim of, for example, counterfeiting or piracy, it has a 34% lower chance of survival than SMEs that did not experience any intellectual property infringement.”
Broken down into sectors, clothing loses an average of €12bn in annual sales, or 5.2% of revenues to counterfeit goods.
Similarly, the cosmetics industry sees, on average, 4.8% of its sales, equivalent to €3bn, lost to knock-off goods coming in through the de minimis loophole, while for the toys sector that figure is €1bn, accounting to 8.7% of yearly sales.
The more measured approach being taken in Brussels stands in stark contrast to the “shoot from the hip” style in the US.
After revoking access to the de minimis exemption for Chinese shippers last week, the Trump White House was forced into something of a climb down over the weekend, announcing that it had temporarily permit Chinese de minimis as it sought to contend with parcels piling up.
Asked about the change, a spokesperson for DHL told The Loadstar that it would continue to process inbound US shipments.
The spokesperson added that “we will also continue to monitor the situation and to work with our customers to help them understand and adapt to any future changes that may come into effect,” with expectations that the revocation would again be put into place soon.
Given the shifting positions, US Customs and Border Protection issued a pamphlet laying out the rules in the present moment.
The pamphlet notes that while de minimis is “alive and well,” the Department of Commerce was engaged in a review of the programme so as to determine its future, and it warned that “rules are changing constantly”.
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