US Postal Service U-turn on China parcels sows confusion among retailers, shippers

The U.S. Postal Service said on Wednesday it would again accept parcels from China and Hong Kong, reversing a temporary suspension after President Donald Trump scrapped an exemption used by retailers including Temu, Shein, and Amazon  to ship low-value packages duty-free to the U.S.

The about-face contributed to growing confusion among retailers and express shipping firms over how to deal with Trump's new 10% tariff on all imports from China and his closure of the "de minimis" duty exemption for package imports valued at under $800.

"We're all running around like headless chickens at this moment in time, trying to second-guess what's going to happen. And in two weeks' time we may be back to normal," said Martin Palmer, co-founder of Hurricane Commerce, a cross-border ecommerce data provider.

The Trump administration has blamed the de minimis exemption for allowing fentanyl and its precursor chemicals to enter the U.S. unscreened. Recent Reuters reporting has also found that drug traffickers have exploited the exemption.

USPS said that it was working with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery," it said in a statement.

USPS did not immediately comment on whether its temporary suspension had been tied to Trump's order ending de minimis shipments from China, which was announced on Saturday and came into force from one minute past midnight on Tuesday.