{"id":140940,"date":"2025-09-08T05:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/140940\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T05:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:03:12","slug":"postal-union-sees-80-percent-decrease-in-shipments-to-us-following-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/140940\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal Union Sees 80 Percent Decrease in Shipments to US Following Tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Postal traffic to the United States<\/a> has plunged by about 81 percent following the end of the duty-free de minimis exemption for low-value packages to the US, according to a press release<\/a> issued by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations<\/a> specialized agency for global postal cooperation.<\/p>\n

The UPU has begun rolling out a technical solution to help postal players resume deliveries in light of the change that took place on Aug. 29, the release said.<\/p>\n

A UPU spokesperson told Newsweek they had no further comment when reached by email Saturday, and referred any additional questions to its website.<\/a><\/p>\n

Why It Matters<\/p>\n

International postal exchanges are a backbone of cross-border e-commerce<\/a> and small-business trade.<\/p>\n

Sudden operational changes that halt or limit parcel flows to the U.S. risk disrupting supply chains<\/a>, delaying consumer goods, and imposing unexpected costs on merchants and shoppers.<\/p>\n

Multiple national postal services announced pauses or suspensions<\/a> of U.S.-bound parcels around the Aug. 29 implementation date, highlighting the scale of the disruption.<\/p>\n

What To Know<\/p>\n

The UPU’s electronic network data showed traffic from member countries to the U.S. fell 81% on Friday, Aug. 29, compared with the previous Friday, Aug. 22, following the suspension of the de minimis exemption, which allows low-value imports to enter a country free of customs duties and taxes.<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear exactly how much financial loss has been suffered as a result of the decrease in shipments.<\/p>\n

The suspension came amid the Trump administrations broad tariff changes, with the administration saying the de minimis was used by importers to avoid paying duties on imports. <\/p>\n

The de minimis exemption was first established in U.S. law in 1938. Under Barack Obama<\/a>‘s Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, the value of a shipment that could be imported free of duties was raised from $200 to $800.<\/p>\n

The recent changes made by the Trump administration now shift responsibility for duty collection to carriers and CBP (customs and border protection)-approved parties, prompting many postal operators and some carriers to pause or suspend shipments to the U.S. while they adapt.<\/p>\n

The U.S. broadened prior changes that had already removed the exemption for China and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

\"Postal
\nA postman travels on his Post Office bike with a helmet for mail delivery in the city center of Valence, France, March 19, 2025.
\nA postman travels on his Post Office bike with a helmet for mail delivery in the city center of Valence, France, March 19, 2025.
\nNICOLAS GUYONNET\/Hans Lucas\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

As a result, 88 postal operators reported suspending some or all services to the U.S. until a solution is in place, the UPU said.<\/p>\n

CBP will now collect duties on all parcels; postal operators may collect ad valorem duties (taxes on imports calculated as a percentage of their value) or use a temporary flat-fee option during a transition period.<\/p>\n

Letters, documents and gifts worth less than $800 are still being delivered to the U.S.<\/p>\n

The UPU said it has deployed a landed-cost calculator API, or application programming interface, which automates the calculation of the total cost of a product from its manufacturing point to its final destination, including shipping, insurance, duties, taxes, and other fees.<\/p>\n

The API will help UPU members integrate a Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) solution into its Customs Declaration System to allow posts to collect required charges at origin.<\/p>\n

What People Are Saying<\/p>\n

UPU Director General Masahiko Metoki said in a press release Friday: “The UPU has in its mission the responsibility to guarantee the free circulation of postal items over a single postal territory. We’re working to uphold that responsibility with the rapid development of a new technical solution that will help get mail moving to the United States again.”<\/p>\n

Peter Navarro, White House Trade Adviser said during a press call in August, as reported by the Daily Caller: “President Trump’s ending the de minimis loophole will save thousands of American lives by restricting the flow of narcotics and other dangerous and prohibited items, add up to $10 billion a year in tariff revenues to our Treasury, create thousands of jobs and defend against billions of dollars lost to counterfeiting, piracy and intellectual property theft.”<\/p>\n

What Happens Next<\/p>\n

The UPU said its API and the roll out of a Delivered Duty Paid integration in its Customs Declaration System will help the 176 postal operators using that platform move to collect duties and remit payments to qualified parties.<\/p>\n

The UPU also said it will provide procedural support and training for postal operators.<\/p>\n

These operators will need to connect to CBP-approved qualified parties or use the UPU’s tools to collect duties at origin; carriers that decline the obligation risk ongoing service suspensions.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has set a transition timeframe, that includes temporary flat-fee options with a requirement for full ad valorem collection, to be completed by Feb. 28, 2026, while CBP and U.S. officials engage with foreign partners to reduce disruptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Postal traffic to the United States has plunged by about 81 percent following the end of the duty-free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,37952,9086,87779,101,1076,5335,87778,47737,87777,759],"class_list":{"0":"post-140940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-de-minimis","10":"tag-donald-trump-tariffs","11":"tag-duty-free","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-postal","16":"tag-shipments","17":"tag-tariff-act","18":"tag-tariffs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}