As a result of President Trump’s executive order on 30 July ending the “De minimis” exception, all parcels entering the USA must pay duty. This duty must be paid before the parcel can be accepted and enter the country. These new rules came into force on August 29th.
However, there’s a big problem. Since the technical advice to international postal operators was only issued on the 15th August, there are currently no systems in place to calculate or pay the new duties. The Portuguese Post Office have consequently suspended parcel service to the USA for the time being until the situation becomes clearer. Many other European post offices have done the same thing, rather than risk large volumes of goods being returned by US customs. All told, about thirty countries worldwide are currently unable to ship to the USA. What the others are doing about it, I don’t know.
Here’s the Portuguese Post Office statement (via Google translate)
We sincerely apologise to all our Stateside customers but currently we can’t accept any orders to the USA since we don’t know how or when we’ll be able to ship them. Obviously we’re keeping a close eye on the situation and looking for any alternatives we can, but for now it’s a no-go.
I’m fairly confident that this situation won’t last for very long since it is going to cause an almighty headache for everyone, both in the USA and abroad. Consequently, some solution will have to be found, and rapidly.
Sincerely,
All at Electric Druid