Plans for €2 duty on parcels from outside EU set to hit Shein and Temu  

EU finance ministers agreed on Thursday to bring forward customs duties on low-value parcels arriving in the 27-nation bloc

A €2 duty on low-value parcels entering the European Union is set to hit billions of packages from Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu.

A €2 duty on low-value parcels entering the European Union is set to hit billions of packages from Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu.

EU finance ministers agreed on Thursday to bring forward "as soon as possible in 2026" the introduction of customs duties on low-value parcels arriving in the 27-nation bloc.

The initial EU plan was to remove the custom duty exemption for parcels valued at less than €150 only in 2028. But a surge in deliveries mainly from China have triggered a backlash from businesses and put pressure on politicians to act faster. 

The number of low-value ecommerce packages arriving in the bloc doubled last year to 4.6bn, over 90% of them from China, and the European Commission is facing pressure from EU companies to stem that flow more quickly.

"We've already received more parcels than in the entire year of 2024, and Black Friday and Christmas are just around the corner," EU lawmaker Dirk Gotink, chief negotiator on the new customs legislation, said in a statement welcoming the move to scrap the customs waiver faster.

Shein declined to comment, while Temu, AliExpress, and Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Brussels wants to crack down on cheap Chinese e-commerce imports, EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic has said, as concern grows over goods being dumped in Europe. In a letter to EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Mr Sefcovic proposed that the "de minimis" exemption from duties for goods ordered online below €150 be removed in the first quarter of 2026, two years earlier than planned.

The move would hit online platforms such as Shein, Temu, AliExpress and Amazon Haul, which send products from Chinese factories directly to shoppers, offering rock-bottom prices thanks to the customs waiver.

"European industries, particularly retailers, have repeatedly underlined that this distortion of competition be removed without delay," Mr Sefcovic wrote.

The United States has scrapped its own "de minimis" policy that allowed duty-free entry to parcels worth less than $800, leading to concerns that cheap Chinese imports would divert more to Europe. There is also added urgency as individual EU countries have moved to introduce national handling fees.

Romania has proposed a 25 lei (€4.92) fee on low-value packages, while Italy is working on a tax by the end of the year to protect its fashion industry, its industry minister said on Wednesday.

European retailers and wholesalers' lobby group EuroCommerce have warned that an assortment of different national fees risks undermining the EU single market. The Commission has proposed a €2 fee.

Mr Sefcovic said the current timeline of abolishing the de minimis threshold in mid-2028 was "incompatible with the urgency of the situation".

Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen told reporters it was time to "get a grip" on cheap Chinese parcels flooding the European market. Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said in a statement that his country backs the immediate imposition of tariffs on small parcels.

Reuters