The European Union introduced Tuesday that it was getting ready to impose a 2 euro ($2.25) flat payment on the billions of low-value packages coming exterior the bloc, the nice majority from China.
Trade chief Maros Sefcovic instructed the European Parliament that e-commerce platforms can be anticipated to pay the levy per parcel, which goals to assist the EU sort out the challenges from the large inflow of cheap objects.
The payment would take away the customs-free standing of packages value lower than 150 euros which can be imported on to customers, usually through platforms like Chinese-founded Temu and Shein.
Parcels despatched on to warehouses the place they’re saved within the EU would face a decrease payment of fifty cents, Sefcovic mentioned.
Last yr, 4.6 billion such small packages entered the EU – greater than 145 per second – with 91% originating in China. The EU expects the numbers to rise.
Platforms, together with Shein and Temu, are suspected by Brussels of not doing sufficient to forestall the sale of merchandise that don’t meet European requirements.
The EU additionally fears that lots of the merchandise imported into the 27-country bloc are unsafe, counterfeit and doubtlessly even harmful to customers.
Sefcovic mentioned the determine represented 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 EU.”
European retailers say they face unfair competitors from abroad platforms, which they declare don’t usually adjust to the EU’s stringent guidelines on merchandise.
‘Compensate price’
Sefcovic famous the “huge” workload for customs officers, including: “Therefore, I wouldn’t look at the handling fee as a tax, simply the fee to compensate the cost.”
Brussels additionally hopes a part of the revenues from the payment will go in the direction of the EU finances.
Paris is particularly involved concerning the challenge: round 800 million such packages have been shipped to France alone final yr.
Last month, France mentioned it needed to begin charging non-EU on-line sellers a dealing with payment per package deal till 2028, when the EU is anticipated to section out the customs-free standing.
Shein and Temu didn’t instantly reply to Agence France-Presse (AFP) requests for remark.
The United States ended tariff exemptions earlier this month for items shipped from China value lower than $800, that are to face a levy of 54%.
Source: www.dailysabah.com