Brussels, Dec 12 (EFE). - The European Union (EU) countries agreed on Friday to impose a three-euro fee from July 1, 2026, on packages worth less than 150 euros arriving at the single market, especially from China and through online shops like Temu or Shein.
The objective is to tackle the avalanche of this type of shipment, which has tripled since 2022 to 4.6 billion packages in 2024, making it difficult for customs authorities to control their contents and allowing products that violate EU rules to enter, creating unfair competition for community manufacturers.
The Ministers of Economy and Finance of the Twenty-Seven agreed last month to eliminate the customs duty exemption that has benefited packages not exceeding 150 euros since 1983, but this measure will not fully come into force until the EU's unified data center is operational in 2028.
For the partners, this was an excessive delay to address a problem they see as urgent, so they have agreed on this temporary mechanism that will allow them to tax these packages as of next July until the definitive system is applied.
Specifically, a fee of three euros will be charged for each category of article in the package, regardless of the number of units, according to European sources.
That is, if the shipment contains ten t-shirts, three euros will be paid; but if it contains a t-shirt and a pair of socks, six will be paid, as they are different types of articles.
This new fee will be imposed on all goods entering the EU from extra-community sellers registered in the EU's one-stop shop for VAT on imports, so it will cover "93% of all online trade flows to the EU," explained the EU Council.
"It is a quick solution that was necessary because many Member States are seeing local shops close due to the large volume of low-cost information without customs duties, especially from China," explained Danish Minister of Finance Stephanie Lose, whose country holds the Council's presidency this semester.
The measure, however, is different from the two-euro management fee that the European Commission has also proposed to apply to packages arriving in the bloc, which has not yet been approved.
The States had two options on the table for the transitional levy: to apply a fee proportional to the value of the goods or a fixed fee equal for all, as France had proposed.
In the end, they opted for the Paris proposal, which is leading the initiatives in the EU to deal with the Chinese giants of online commerce.
"It is a great victory for the EU."
