Agility is vital for exporters in face of de minimis changes
Several European postal services, including France’s La Poste and Deutsche Post, have announced temporary restrictions on shipping goods to the US.
The announcements have been made in response to the removal of “de minimis” exemptions for items valued under $800 entering the USA.
Other operators introducing restrictions include DHL, Spain’s Correos, Poste Italiane and the Danish, Swedish and Belgian postal services.
The reported impacts include restricted shipments, systems struggling to cope, and blanket surcharges.
Commenting on these developments, David Taylor, global commercial director at ecommerce trade specialist Mark 3 International, said, “Following the removal of de minimis exemptions, logistics customers are already experiencing increasing costs, worsening service, and greater uncertainty. This will almost certainly impact their customers as we head towards key seasonal shopping months.”
The Royal Mail, alongside Austria’s Österreichische Post, confirmed they would stop accepting packages in order to process and deliver parcels sent before the changes came into force at the end of August.
Taylor added, “The major logistics companies and national postal services are ill-equipped to deal with such rapidly changing circumstances.
“Their systems and processes are not readily adaptable, as they are geared towards delivering a consistent, predictable service that relies on a stable global ecosystem.
“The reality of the last year or so is that things can change overnight, so it’s becoming apparent that this model no longer applies.
“A more agile approach to US-bound shipments is needed now more than ever, and the use of AI-powered tools is increasingly making that agility much easier to accommodate.”
Back in March of this year, and widely reported in the trade media, Taylor warned of the likely impact of these changes, saying, “De minimis ultimately means a level playing field for consumers. By removing taxes and duties on low-value goods, ecommerce exporters can compete openly with local businesses, creating a worldwide marketplace for all sorts of goods.”
Following the executive order coming into effect, he added: “The UK’s trade with the USA is critical for the British economy, but as one of America’s top ten trading partners, it’s also extremely important across the Atlantic. With ecommerce shipments growing in volume year-on-year, changes such as those to the de minimis rules will cause considerable problems for British exporters, ultimately raising prices and creating delays for American consumers.”
A report from Reuters notes that the volume of de minimis packages entering the US approached 1.4 billion in 2024, largely due to an increase in online shopping. It says, “More than 90% of all packages coming into the US now enter via de minimis. Of those, about 60% come from China, led by direct-to-consumer retailers such as Temu and Shein.”
Taylor continued: “In such a tumultuous commercial environment, ecommerce exporters must start to think differently. Where the large, consolidated couriers take time to process such large changes, smaller, more agile ecommerce logistics specialists are often better suited to react and adapt in line with new legislation.
“While this is a seismic shift in US trade policy, it is unlikely that this latest change will be the last. What is true today may not be true tomorrow so it’s imperative that exporters can be confident in their logistics partners’ ability to change with the tides.”
The UK is the third largest e-commerce market in the world, after China and the US, according to US government’s International Trade Administration. And the UK’s Office for National Statistics, in its most recent analysis from January 2025, says the UK exported £60.4bn of goods (15.3% of all goods exports) to the US in 2023, making it the UK’s biggest individual trading partner.