News / Shippers urged to 'get creative' amid restrictions on postal services to the US

ID 138278823 © Dragan Andrii

Shippers are being advised to hold certain shipments, or to “get creative”, now postal services from many countries to the US are suspended – but it might take some time before operations resume.  

Postal services for business shipments to the US from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France, Austria, the UK, Spain, Singapore and India, among others, have been halted due to new processes required by US authorities due to the looming revocation of its de minimis exemption. 

The Association of European Postal Services has told its member companies to temporarily restrict or suspend the shipping of goods through postal networks to the US. 

One source familiar with the matter told The Loadstar this was because US processes, particularly around collection of duties and taxes, was “not clear enough” for postal services to be certain they won’t encounter delays, “which then would lead to backlogs or people sending back shipments, that kind of thing”.  

Indeed, DHL Group said: “Key questions remain unresolved, particularly regarding how and by whom customs duties will be collected, what additional data will be required, and how the data transmission to the US CBP will be carried out.” 

And Brandon Fried, director of the Air Forwader’s Association, told The Loadstar:  “What DHL and other postal operators are doing here isn’t about easing their workload—it’s about compliance.”

“With the US government abruptly scrapping duty-free treatment for small parcels, the rules on how to collect duties and transmit the right data simply aren’t clear yet. Until that’s sorted, postal networks don’t want to risk moving packages they can’t process correctly,” he said.

The source familiar with the matter believed this may be only a temporary restriction, with affected respective postal services working with the USPS and the CBP “to try and get a viable process and systems in place”. 

“But the fact that it’s suspended right now means, I think, that it’s going to take a little bit of time to work through it,” they warned. 

And one major forwarder told The Loadstar shippers might want to “hold off” certain shipments, adding: “It could impact some shipments where the carrying cost of a parcel service might be higher than post, so it becomes less profitable or less viable for some businesses out there.” 

Mr Fried said: “For forwarders that play in this low-value space, it’s a headache—shipments are frozen, customers are confused, and everyone is scrambling to figure out who pays what and how the filings get made.”

But the forwarder added that customers “can be so creative”.  

“Bigger businesses might just use an importer of record, import in bulk and clear and then distribute within the US. There are all sorts of ways businesses can adapt.” 

DHL has advised that its express and ecommerce service were working as usual, though these shipments would be subject to additional duties and reporting requirements once the de minimis exemption in the US is removed on 29 August.  

“It’s not that all exports to the US of low-value items will now be on hold because they can’t get them there. I think it is really hard to gauge, there’s so many moving parts,” the forwarding source concluded.  

Letters and shipments sent as gifts under $100 are not impacted and Mr Fried added that for the broader forwarding community, express cargo and regular imports are unaffected, “so it’s more of a niche disruption than a sector-wide crisis”.