Trump's tariffs sever postal ties between Europe and America

European postal services have announced the suspension of parcel deliveries to the United States, a radical decision that reflects the uncertainty and chaos created by the new customs tariffs introduced by the Donald Trump administration, according to an article published by the British daily The Guardian. The measure hits both large logistics networks and small European companies that depend on sending low-value packages to the American market.

Donald Trump announced last month that the US would eliminate, starting on August 29, the so-called "de minimis" exemption, which allowed duty-free imports for packages under $800, a vital mechanism for millions of senders and recipients. Following this decision, parcels will be subject to a 15% tariff, equivalent to most imports from the European Union, which risks slowing transatlantic trade and blocking daily commercial flows.

France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and other major European postal operators have decided to stop shipping to the US, citing the lack of a clear framework on who pays the fees, how they will be collected and what additional information needs to be provided to US authorities. Some services, such as Royal Mail and Osterreichische Post, have set strict deadlines for the last parcels accepted, trying to avoid parcels arriving after the new rules come into force.

DHL, Europe's largest logistics player, announced that it would no longer accept commercial parcels destined for the United States, while La Poste, which sends 1.6 million parcels across the Atlantic every year, denounced the fact that the rules were only officially confirmed on August 15, leaving operators with an extremely short period of time to adapt. PostNL also drew attention to a paradox: Washington is imposing fees without yet having a functioning mechanism to collect them.

The only exceptions concern packages sent by individuals with a value of less than 100 euros, but these will also be subject to additional checks to prevent abuse for commercial purposes.

Therefore, the European association of public postal operators, PostEurop, warns, according to the cited source, that in the absence of concrete solutions before August 29, all its members could be forced to suspend most parcel deliveries to the United States. The impact on small and medium-sized European enterprises, which use these channels to export low-value goods, is expected to be devastating, and uncertainty looms over both traders and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.