I understand paying import duties and VAT, but they need to make it frictionless and abolish these “agents” for consumer imports.
Thus the declaration gets prefilled with mostly correct data, which the person can then verify, change or augment.
Haven't used it myself but sounds quite nice, and Posti's handling fee[2] is a reasonable EUR 3.10.
[1]: https://tulli.fi/en/declare-your-parcel
[2]: https://www.posti.fi/en/for-businesses/pay-the-handling-fee
Also, €3 is massive when some items are €0.99 with free shipping.
It should be changed so any necessary handling fees for consumer purchases are fully included in the shipping price.
It will mean no free shipping from temu on a 0.99 item, but those zero/low shipment items are literally what has prompted this €3 levy in the first place.
Obviously if the shipment is DDP then the customer wouldn't have to do the customs clearance and wouldn't pay in addition for the handling.
This solution would only be for DAP or similar[1].
DigiKey for example allows you to select between different incoterms, but most shops have a "take it or leave it" approach, and usually DAP as DDP is a lot more risky for the seller.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incoterms#DAP_%E2%80%93_Delive...
If I read it right, I’d need to pay €3 on each item when Aliexpress bundles 20 1€ items together - €60 in tax for €20 worth of items, or effectively a 300% tax. That’s what the language implies with “applied to each different item, …, contained in a consignment.”
That’s not just a tax on revenue, or an incentive to buy locally - it’s prohibitory. Do they want to obliterate the "direct-to-consumer" cheap goods for good with this?
But who this law protects anyway? Most of “local” sellers that offer Aliexpress-kind of items (where else can I find my “stainless steel meat shredder claws” but there!?) basically drop ship from Taobao and the like in bulk. And this law now forces me to use them. What’s the point of this? A tiny revenue stream from handling fees? But even these drop shippers don’t offer much in terms of variety. Nor do or possibly can the supposedly big warehouses of Aliexpress-like platforms located within EU - it’s just not feasible. So this law implies that unregulated variety is a luxury now?
If I recall correctly some of the goals of this are
- to relieve the load on the custom s enforcement agencies by motivating sellers to import and declare goods in bulk.
- to make sure there is someone domestic who is legally responsible for liabilities and other regulations (e.g. for waste and EC compliance). It's easier to force a big company to do something than a 2 person shop in China. There are already laws in the book where the marketplace becomes liable if the actual seller cannot be found.
I believe AliExpress bulk imports much of its wares to EU warehouses already (at least popular stuff). It's not possible for everything but for popular items it's happening more and more frequently.
Glawen•1mo ago
sQL_inject•1mo ago
We've entered a new era where every nation is walling up its industries (tariffs and fines), its demographics (via immigration), and it's culture (internet and social media control).
A customs duty and a tariff are functionally the same, raising the cost of foreign goods to protect local industries.
londons_explore•1mo ago
At the volumes AliExpress/Temu/Shein ship I'm very surprised it isn't already cheaper to do so rather than try to air freight everything (air freight can easily cost $4/kg, Which is part of the reason all the items are very lightweight)
Ekaros•1mo ago