News / End of de minimis in the UK would be 'Brexit all over again'

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Importers want EU and UK governments to follow the US lead in ending the de minimis exemption on Chinese goods, but customs experts have told The Loadstar that could result in Brexit-level chaos for British authorities.

Yesterday The Loadstar reported the industry call on Brussels and Whitehall, with claims that the UK exchequer had lost some £5.9bn ($7.9bn) from low-cost Chinese sales falling under de minimis.

David Jinks, head of consumer research for Parcelhero, said: “America’s unilateral ending of its de minimis threshold has destabilised the international market, and may have made our own limit untenable.”

Pointing to Shein and Temu’s dominance in retail, particularly clothing, with sales having hit £2bn last year, Mr Jinks said UK retailers were calling for an end to de minimis.

However CEO of returns solutions provider ZigZag Al Gerrie warned against a hasty response to the decision taken across the Atlantic, noting neither UK retailers nor government were prepared for an imminent end to the exemption.

“It will be like Brexit all over again, with no digital solutions in place to handle the rush of duty-payable imports,” Mr Gerrie told The Loadstar.

“With Brexit, no digital solutions were in place to get parcels across border. When ministers said ‘Brexit means Brexit’, no one knew what that meant. The same thing will happen if de minimis changes.”

During extensive coverage of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, The Loadstar was beset by concerns from shippers and forwarders over a lack of clarity around changes, particularly IT providers, to whom many in the industry were turning so they could meet the demands of the additional declarations that would be flowing through the system.

But with constant shifts in government policy – “it was being made up on the fly” – tech providers lacked the necessary information to facilitate their customers’ needs.

Mr Gerrie said the government should use what happened with Brexit as a template for what not to do, urging it to make grants available, “that aren’t incredibly difficult to access”, and be ready with commercial assistance for tech providers.

“The second thing government needs to do is make its mind up very quickly on what the rates and the terms will be,” he continued.

“If they are to take this decision, ideally industry and government need several months to get everything in order. You need the legislation in place before the decision is announced.”