The EU Ecofin Council has abolished the exemption from customs duties for parcels entering the Union worth less than 150 euros. A measure to counter the influx of small parcels currently exempt from customs duties which in one way or another creates unfair competition for European sellers, as well as raising environmental concerns.
The objective is to block the wave of parcels arriving, especially from Chinese online stores, starting from the Chinese platforms Temu and Shein. With the green light from Ecofin, the tightening could end already in the budget law and start in 2026, as the EU Council hopes, instead of in 2028 foreseen by the official reform.
The regulation has been approved, but entry into force remains set for 2028, together with the customs reform which will introduce a single platform to control imports. But now we are trying to shorten the time.
Waiting until 2028 is out of the question – declared Danish Minister Stephanie Lose, who leads the current EU Council. We need to intervene sooner, the problem of low-cost parcels is enormous.
The aim is to present a first update as early as Ecofin in December. Meanwhile, the numbers speak for themselves: in 2024, 4.6 billion items under 150 euros arrived, and 91% came from China, as recalled by EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
Finally, on a practical level, it remains to be defined how to introduce advance duties from 2026 on smaller non-EU parcels. Average tariffs are likely to be used, as the Customs Data Hub is not yet operational to calculate the exact values of goods. We’ll see.
