The EU has said it is preparing to impose a €2 flat fee on the billions of low-value packages that flood into the bloc each year, the great majority from China.
The EU’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic told the European Parliament that e-commerce platforms would be expected to pay the fee per parcel, which aims to help the European Union tackle the challenges from the massive influx of cheap items.
The fee would remove the customs-free status of packages worth less than €150 that are imported directly to consumers, often via platforms like Chinese-founded Temu and Shein.
In 2024, 4.6 billion such packages entered the EU – more than 145 per second – with 91% originating in China. The EU expects the numbers to rise.
Mr Sefcovic said the figure represents a “completely new challenge to the control, to the safety, to making sure that the standards are properly checked of the products which are shipped to the European Union”.
He pointed to the “huge” workload for customs officials, “therefore I wouldn’t look at the handling fee as a tax, simply the fee to compensate the cost”.
Brussels also hopes part of the revenues from the fee will go towards the EU budget.
Damian O’Reilly, lecturer in retail management at Technical University Dublin, said: “More than nine out of ten packages imported to the EU come from China.
“The move follows similar efforts by the US to crack down on low-cost imports by ending its ‘de minimis’ regime, which exempts shipments worth less than $800 from tariffs and paperwork.”
In a statement to RTÉ News, Fine Gael MEP for Dublin, Regina Doherty, who also sits on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection in the European Parliament, said: “I support measures that improve product safety, such as warehousing requirements, which can help ensure consumers aren’t exposed to dangerous or substandard goods.
“However, there are still serious questions to be answered about how the Commission’s formula will work in practice and what impact it could have on the cost of living.
“It’s also crucial to see what impact this will have trade between Ireland and the UK.”
Additional reporting Eithne Dodd
