Glenn Fleishman on the Increasing Impracticality of Shipping From the U.S. to the E.U.
Glenn Fleishman: Recent protectionist changes by the European Union further effectively exclude U.S. small businesses like mine from selling to EU customers. It’s a little complicated, but it has to do with how tax and customs fees are collected and extracted from low-value packages. This is not a tariff issue, unbelievably, but one about reducing competition. The summary: Delivering items under…
Recent protectionist changes by the European Union have made it increasingly difficult for U.S. small businesses to sell to EU customers. Glenn Fleishman, a reporter, explains that the issue lies in how tax and customs fees are collected and extracted from low-value packages. This isn't a tariff issue, but rather an attempt to reduce competition.
Under €150 per shipment, delivering items to the EU now costs at least €3 per package, and may require hiring a specialized firm to handle time-of-purchase tax collection and payment due to the various filing requirements by EU nations. Consequently, shipping prices have skyrocketed, and no carrier currently offers rates affordable for modestly priced items such as books while properly collecting the €3+ customs fee.
The new regulations may have been triggered by Chinese companies like Temu exploiting de minimis shipping exceptions, which allow for shipping numerous inexpensive items individually rather than in bulk. However, the new rules should only apply to items arriving from China.
Written by urgent.news from Daring Fireball's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
