On July 30th of this year, President Trump signed a executive order that ended the de minimis rule. Following this, the Universal Postal Union has found that mail traffic to the United States has dropped over 80%.
The de minimis rule allowed for small packages worth less than $800 to enter the United States duty free. President trump removed the de minimis rule through an executive order on July 30th of this year.
In an interview in NBC, the editor-in-chief of Investopedia, Caleb Silver said that “There is so much uncertainty about how these tariffs are going to be collected. Who will collect these tariffs? What products, if any, will be exempt from these tariffs? And that just adds more uncertainty into an already very confusing picture around tariffs and how they’re going to impact us here in the United States.” ().
In a press release in August, DHL said that they would “temporarily suspend the acceptance and transport of business customer parcels via the postal network to the U.S.” (Bonn, Aug. 22).
Several other postal services also said they would suspend or pause shipment of all or some items to the United States, including Japan Post, Austrian Post, France’s La Poste, and the Nordic Postnord.
In an interview with The Hill, Universal Postal Union Director Masahiko Metoki. said, “The UPU has in its mission the responsibility to guarantee the free circulation of postal items over a single postal territory. We’re working to uphold that responsibility with the rapid development of a new technical solution that will help get mail moving to the United States again.” (Swanson, July 9).
