EU economy ministers on Thursday agreed to push forward on scrapping a customs duty exemption on cheap parcels entering the single market, but how exactly this will be realised is still to be decided.
Parcels with a value below €150 are currently exempt from paying customs duties to enter the EU – however a flood of low value parcels from online platforms like Shein and Temu is driving a rules rethink.
Denmark’s Stephanie Lose, who chaired the Council discussion, said at a press conference today that countries and the Commission will work on developing a “simple temporary solution” to enact the change as soon as possible in the coming year.
But she admitted that capitals would have to “get back to the details”, adding that she hoped to be able to take stock of further talks with the Commission by the next economy Council meeting, planned for 12 December.
On Thursday ministers backed abolishing the exemption by 2028, as part of a broader customs reform package they’re currently negotiating with Parliament.
To pull forward the change – as they also said that they want to – the Commission will need to bring forward a legal text that capitals can agree on by their next meeting in December.
“The exemption must be abolished as soon as possible,” said Christian Democrat MEP Dirk Gotink, Parliament’s lead on the customs reform package. “We have already received more packages than in the whole of 2024, and Black Friday and Christmas are still to come.”
Bernd Lange, the powerful Social Democrat chair of Parliament’s trade committee, said today that he regretted that capitals had not immediately been able to agree on a faster timetable for the reform, which he sees as long overdue.
Still, he hailed the decision to get rid of the exemption by 2028 as a “historic step”.
(nl)
