EU imposes fee on packages from China
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Starting in November, the European Union will charge a two-euro fee on each package arriving from countries outside the EU, including China and the United States.
The European Union implemented this fee to address the increasing volume of low-cost packages entering the EU, particularly from Chinese producers. In 2025, customs officials across Europe processed around six billion packages from online retailers, with 90 percent originating in China.
Online marketplaces like Shein, Temu, and AliExpress will be responsible for collecting the fee, not individual European consumers. National authorities will collect the fees to cover the rising costs associated with processing and controlling the large number of small shipments. The fee is part of a larger customs reform intended to simplify global trade, improve tariff collection, and strengthen controls on non-compliant goods.
This new processing fee complements a customs charge introduced in July, which levies a flat rate of three euros per item group in a shipment. While comprehensive data on package volume changes across Europe is not yet available, France reported a decrease of up to 40 percent in small package imports during the first weeks after the implementation of the three-euro charge.
The EU plans to launch a new digital platform for managing and monitoring imports by 2028, at which point all goods entering the EU will be subject to tariffs from the first euro.
