(25 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 25 August 2025
1. Wide exterior of BPost (Belgian Post) post office with man exiting holding package
2. Close of man opening package
3. Wide of post office
4. Close of PostEurop (European postal operators association) logo
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Botond Szebeny, PostEurop Secretary-General:
“I think it is important to underline that all our members who have even announced the actual suspension of the traffic, it is close to 20 members so far and more may come in the next days, they all talk about temporary suspension. So the idea is to return to this new normal as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the development, the testing and the implementation of the new solutions which comply with the new requirements takes time.”
6. Mid of woman entering post office with package
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Botond Szebeny, PostEurop Secretary-General:
"A group of our customers are the SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises), or certain customers who send items with higher value to the United States, but we do think that it definitely has an impact on the commerce between the two continents.”
8. Close of PostEurop logo
9. Wide of post office
10. Various of packages stocked in front of post office window
11. Wide of post office
STORYLINE:
The Secretary-General of an association of European public postal operators stressed on Monday some members decisions to suspended sending low-value packages to the U.S. was only "temporary" until more clarity was achieved around new tariffs set to be imposed by the Trump administration.
The end of an exemption on tariff duties for low-value packages coming into the United States is causing multiple international postal services to pause shipping as they await more clarity on the rule.
The exemption, known as the “ de minimis" exemption, allows packages worth less than $800 to come into the U.S. duty free. A total of 1.36 billion packages were sent in 2024 under this exemption, for goods worth $64.6 billion, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency.
It is set to expire on Friday. On Saturday, postal services around Europe announced that they are suspending the shipment of many packages to the United States amid confusion over new import duties.
Postal services in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Italy said they will stop shipping most merchandise to the U.S. effective immediately. France and Austria will follow on Monday.
A trade framework agreed on by the U.S. and the European Union last month set a 15% tariff on the vast majority of products shipped from the EU. Packages under $800 will now also be subject to the tariff.
Many European postal services say they are pausing deliveries now because they cannot guarantee the goods will enter the U.S. before August 29. They cite ambiguity about what kind of goods are covered by the new rules, and the lack of time to process their implications.
"I think it is important to underline that all our members who have even announced the actual suspension of the traffic, it is close to 20 members so far and more may come in the next days, they all talk about temporary suspension," said Botond Szebeny, Secretary-General of PostEurop, an association of 51 European public postal operators.
"So the idea is to return to this new normal as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the development, the testing and the implementation of the new solutions which comply with the new requirements takes time.”
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