The Swiss Post follows the steps to other European positions and suspends the delivery of packages for the United States from Tuesday. In question, the Trump administration’s decision to end the tax exemption on small packages, those with a value less than or equal to 800 dollars.
The US government has decided to suppress, from August 29, the 800 US dollars deductible for the import of goods, the post office announced on Monday. Without this franchise, each shipping of goods – regardless of its size and value – must be declared and cleared to American customs.
Initially, the measure was aimed at expeditions from China and Hong Kong. It was a question of countering the massive shipments of the giants of online commerce Temu and Shein. But the White House decided to generalize this measure.
Thus, European packages should be taxed up to 15% like the other products that return to the United States. As for Switzerland, it would be 39%, since it is the price applied by the Trump administration on August 1.
In addition, the United States has introduced new prescriptions for the course of customs clearance. Important questions regarding the responsibility and application of new prescriptions are not yet clarified.
This is why La Poste, like many postal companies in the world, and in particular the German, Spanish, Austrian and Belgian services, is forced to refuse goods for the United States. La Poste made this decision in close collaboration with the Swiss authorities.
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Solution in sight for small gifts
Except the letters, documents and express shipments that will not be affected.
As for gifts worth less than 100 dollars, a solution should quickly be found in order to be able to reach them, indicates the post office, for whom the American market is important.
On Monday, a spokesperson for La Poste said that Switzerland’s shipments from Switzerland to the United States represented 0.2% of the total volume of the Post Swiss Post. Last year, it treated around 180 million packages, which means that around 360,000 packages are dispatched each year to the United States.
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Sylvie Belzer/Lan with ATS