EU targets China’s Shein and Temu with new fees on low-value parcels

The European Union will start collecting a three-euro flat fee for each small parcel valued below €150 (US$176) sent directly from a non-EU country to customers in the bloc, following a decision adopted by the EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday.\nThe move, set to kick in next July, marks a milestone in Europe’s fight, led by France, against the influx of small parcels, mostly from Chinese platforms such as Temu and Shein, entering the union tax free. But how effective these tariffs will be remains to be seen given both platforms’ extensive warehouse and logistic networks in Europe.\n“Today is a big day for Europe, a big day for France, but above all a big day for our citizens, producers and retailers,” French finance minister Roland Lescure told journalists with a smile.\nParis has repeatedly warned that these small parcels pose a threat to European businesses and consumers.\nThree euros will be a “relatively significant fee” for these small parcels given their values, according to Lescure, which stressed that France spent the past day convincing a lot of its European peers to sign on to the measure which Paris sees as the right way forward.\n\nThe fee will apply to all small parcels directly sent from non-EU countries to European customers, according to a statement from the European Commission published on Friday.\nThere is no mention of this fee applying to small parcels sent from non-EU countries to warehouses in the EU.\nIt is also separate from the proposed handling fee on small parcels, which is currently under negotiation and is expected to come into force in November 2026, according to the EU Commission statement.\nThe 27-member bloc has also voted in November to remove the tax exemption for small parcels valued at below €150. Paris and Brussels have been pushing for this measure to kick in as early as next year, instead of in 2028 as initially announced.\nSmall parcels are the number one good that China exported to France in 2024 in terms of value, representing 7 per cent of Beijing’s total exports to Paris according to Chinese customs data.\nFor the EU as a whole, China sent out 91 per cent of the roughly 4.6 billion small parcels that entered the bloc in 2024, according to the commission.\nThe tariffs’ impact is uncertain, particularly as some apply more lightly to parcels routed through European warehouses.\nThe proposed two-euro handling fee, for instance, would only be 50 cents per parcel if they were sent to a European warehouse to be stored.\nBoth Shein and Temu have multiple distribution centres across the continent.\nTemu has, in the past three months, signed logistics cooperation agreements with postal services from Austria, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and France. The Chinese cross-border e-commerce giant had previously announced it aims to eventually ship 80 per cent of its European orders from local warehouses.\nThe moves could also affect US retail giant Amazon, which recently launched its Amazon Haul service in France to compete with Temu. Already operating in Germany, the service ships low-cost products – most below €10 – from Amazon’s warehouses in China.\n