More than 30 nations have suspended some parcel shipments to the United States in preparation of new tariff rules going into effect this week.
A UN agency responsible for the postal sector said Aug. 26 more than two dozen of its member states had suspended goods consignments to the United States, citing uncertainties over new tariff policies starting on Friday, Aug. 29, and their potential effects on transit services.
The pauses are in response to President Donald Trump’s decision in July to sunset the “de minimis” trade agreement, an exemption that for years allowed packages worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. In 2024, de minimis shipments coming into the United States were valued at more than $1.36 billion, according to Customs and Border Protection.
De minimis: Key trade loophole ends this week. What it means for shoppers.
Which countries suspended postal shipments to US?
The UN’s Universal Postal Union, which promotes cooperation between postal services of its 192 member countries, said the changes “will entail considerable operational changes for postal operators around the world.”
The agency said in a statement to USA TODAY that it could not name the 25 countries they say are suspending services, adding that the nations communicated with the agency via their internal emergency information system. However, many nations’ postal services and international shipping companies have already announced their suspensions and partial restrictions of shipments to the U.S. publicly.
They include:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czechia
Denmark
Estonia
France
Germany
Greece
India
Italy
Japan
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Serbia
Singapore
Slovenia
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s two largest postal carriers, Pošta Sarajevo and Pošte Srpska, said they stopped accepting international postal items addressed to the United States on Aug. 22, with the latter still accepting express mail items in international traffic.
DHL Parcel Germany and its domestic arm, Deutsche Post, paused the “acceptance and transport of business customer parcels via the postal network to the U.S.” as of Aug. 23, due to the tariff policies going into place as de minimis ends, the company said in a statement.
Restrictions and pauses continue to change as de minimis ends
While many nations’ postal services and several international shipping companies hit pause, others have carved out some exceptions or issued updates to their services over the past week.
Japan Post on Aug. 25 said it would suspend accepting some postal items to the United States, with an economic official telling Reuters the move would have “only a limited impact” on users, as there were alternative shipping methods.
South Korea’s post said last week customers will be able to send packages through its partnership service with UPS.
FedEx’s Australian business on Aug. 26 also said it continued to accept and transport shipments to the United States, according to Reuters, while New Zealand’s post resumed shipments on Aug. 28 due to a new commercial sending option.
What is the de minimis exception?
The de minimis exemption refers to Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allows the secretary of the Treasury to waive some duties or fees where it is more inconvenient to collect the tax than the revenue would be worth. In practice, the policy allowed companies to ship low-value packages to the U.S. tariff-free. The Trump administration said in April, before the executive order ending the exemptions, that Customs and Border Patrol processes over 4 million de minimis shipments into the United States each day.
The exception has been the subject of back-and-forth over the past few months between the Trump administration and China, and it hit an early speed bump. It was originally set to end in February, but it was then postponed after packages began piling up without time to plan and execute the policy change.
The Aug. 29 deadline comes a few months after the loophole was closed on May 2 for imports, specifically from China and Hong Kong, where behemoth low-value retailers like Shein and Temu ship a significant portion of their products from. Over half of all packages with de minimis exemptions come from China, and more than 30% of all daily packages shipped under de minimis are from Temu and Shein, Reuters reported in February.
Contributing: Reuters
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Which countries suspended parcel shipments to US? Here’s a list
