European Union ministers on Thursday voted to eliminate duty-free status for small parcel imports, joining the United States in upending a popular mechanism for e-commerce platforms to directly ship orders across borders to households at low cost.
The agreement would eliminate the 150 euro customs threshold, equivalent to $174, below which shipments are exempt for paying duties in 2028, dependent on the successful completion of a centralized EU customs data hub that would replace fragmented national systems for processing trade flows. The online portal would be able to calculate and transmit customs debt owed on a per-item basis for packages entering the European Union.
Officials will now work on a temporary way to collect duties on low-value goods as soon as possible in 2026, according to the EU announcement.
The U.S. threshold for charging customs duties was $800 per individual shipment.
“We ensure that duties are paid from the first euro, creating a level playing field for European businesses and limiting the influx of low-cost goods,” said Stephanie Lose, Denmark’s minister for economic affairs.
The agreement on de minimis follows a European Council decision in June to collect a flat e-commerce handling fee of 2 euros, starting in November 2026, aimed at addressing the influx of inexpensive imports from Alibaba, Shein, Temu and other platforms in China.
The so-called de minimis rule has been under fire in the U.S. and Europe for giving foreign sellers an unfair advantage over domestic producers and traditional bulk imports of retail goods. European officials have also raised environmental concerns from extra packaging and vehicle emissions used to transport individual shipments instead of consolidated ones designed for store distribution. U.S. authorities have also criticized the trade-facilitation program as enabling the smuggling of illegal drugs and counterfeit products because e-commerce shipments can bypass regular customs checks.
The European Union received 4.6 billion parcel imports in 2024. According to estimates, up to 65% of small parcels entering the region are undervalued to avoid import duties and 91% of all e-commerce shipments valued below 150 euros came from China last year. Collecting duties on these shipments is expected to bring in $1.2 billion per year in customs revenue.
Although parcels valued below 150 euros are exempt from customs duties they are still subject to value-added tax and customs declarations in the EU.
Airfreight demand from China and Hong Kong to the U.S. has declined since May, when the Trump administration banned favorable customs treatment for small-dollar shipments. But e-commerce volumes from China to European countries have surged this year. In August, the U.S. government revoked the de minimis exemption for shipments from all countries.
Large online sellers have responded to the new rules by shifting much of their inbound inventory to ocean containers and fulfilling e-commerce orders from U.S. warehouses.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
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