Why 20+ countries just froze shipping to the U.S. (and what it means for you)

AOL ^ | August 28, 2025 | YAHIA BARAKAH

[DoodleBob]

Several postal services around the world have paused package deliveries to the United States this week, and it's not because they're overwhelmed with shipping demand. The suspensions, which affect shipments of goods valued under $800, follow a recent executive order that President Trump signed that effectively ends the de minimis exemption on August 29.

The fallout has been swift and global. We're talking about major disruptions from Europe to Asia that might impact many American small businesses, limit where you can shop, and make it more complicated and expensive to receive the items you order.

What countries have limited deliveries, and why

Postal services in countries like Germany, Japan, France and Australia have announced service suspensions until further notice. Most suspensions cited logistical challenges and uncertainty over the U.S.'s tariff policies after the elimination of the de minimis exemption.

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The de minimis exemption is basically a free pass for small packages. Since 1938, any package you receive from overseas that’s valued under a certain limit gets to skip customs fees and import taxes when it arrives in the U.S. That limit has been $800 since 2016.

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But postal services worldwide say they're scrambling to figure out how this will actually work. Key questions remain unresolved, particularly regarding how and by whom customs duties will be collected in the future, what additional data will be required, and how the data transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will be carried out.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: deminimisexemption; shipping; somuchwinning; tariffs; taxesandtariffs; thankstrump

[DoodleBob]

Country list: Austria Norway Australia Singapore Mexico Belgium Russia India South Korea Czech Republic Spain Japan Taiwan Denmark Sweden New Zealand Thailand France Switzerland Germany United Kingdom Italy

[nwrep]

Not what I voted for.

[mythenjoseph]

The question to ask is are we able to ship items to these countries without having to pay a fee for items under the 800.00 dollar mark? I highly doubt it , and anything that will attract any manufacturing back to our shores is needed badly. I also do not forget the simple fact that our own politicians / government aided and abetted the purge of manufacturing from America to overseas and created the situation.

[CaliGangsta]

The days of exploiting America are OVER, I have seen people ship ANYTHING, no matter the value, as a “gift” or declared value $5 to avoid tariffs and scrutiny. THOSE DAYS ARE OVER.

[ryderann]

My India order arrived quickly from the Philippines.

[Dr. Sivana]

Commercial express services. Companies like DHL Express, FedEx and UPS are still shipping to the U.S., but they’ll calculate and collect the new tariffs for you.

[Wilderness Conservative]

No worries, there are plenty of domestic pearls available for you to clutch.

[chief lee runamok]

"Not what I voted for."

Too bad.

Tax paying USA citizens should not subsidize shipping your
small packages from foreign countries.

Cutting off cheating foreign shippers is what I voted for.

[Jane Long]

Exactly what I voted for.

[Jane Long]

Amen!!

[bobbo666]

Uhh, what makes you think you were even informed of this?

Point is that some small packages were being used to ship fentanyl. So, folks looked into this.

This will have little to no effect on anyone since the fix is mutiple:
1. Package multiple bundles into larger packs that are priced at more than $800
2. Collect small packages at a shipping point or local retailed that will repackage >$800
3.Just declare the contents and pay the custom fee — your free ride is over.
4. Raise the price >$800 and include a coupon for the difference

As to foreigners halting shipping, so bloody what? This is just to provide time to change procedures on the software/policy manuals telling shipping monkeys what to do.

[PGR88]

The question to ask is are we able to ship items to these countries without having to pay a fee for items under the 800.00 dollar mark?

100%. I did business for many years with China. Try shipping something / anything in a parcel to China. Chinese Customs is guaranteed to open the box, open the package inside (even if it means destroying it), and require every possible shipping document, testing document, and local customs permission possible.

They make it extremely difficult to ship any parcel there, even zero-value industrial samples. Forget about running a sales business in such a way. Its absolutely impossible.

[AZJeep]

But they do not treat the outgoing shipments that way.
Jut opposite!

[Nervous Tick]

>> We’re talking about major disruptions from Europe to Asia that might ... limit where you can shop

Throw me in that briar patch! Anyone else beside Mrs. Tick ever get burned by one of those tempting clothing/home furnishing/other-retail-crap web ads from some no-name vendor and three weeks later receive your “package” direct from Chindialand, tear it open with glee, and discovered it’s undersized/poorly made/dysfunctional garbage that bears only a faint resemblance to the advertisement?

“de minimis no tariff” is how those clowns deliver their stuffs. They can all stuff it now!

[Nervous Tick]

>> Not what I voted for.

Part and (no) parcel what I voted for! MAGA!!!!

[Fresh Wind]

From personal experience, it was not long ago that you could buy stuff on eBay from sellers in China for a few dollars and have it delivered to you with free shipping. That required subsidies from the government of China and with the cooperation of the US government. Basically, US sellers of similar items in the US were shut out of the market.

Now the free shipping thing seems to have disappeared, but China sellers are now offering shipping to the US for much less that it would cost a seller in the US to ship to China.

[Mariner]

“Try shipping something / anything in a parcel to China.”

China is EASY compared to Canada.

I used to somewhat regularly ship specialized test equipment into Canada. Nightmare.

[econjack]

This is a nose-face reaction. While it affects companies in the US that import goods, it likewise affects those companies that export products to the US. China has about 20% of its GDP based on exports. Other countries: Germany 43%, South Korea 38%, Canada 26%. Luxembourg, Hong Kong, and Singapore actually have percentages where they exceed 100%. (They can exceed 100% because GDP measures value added domestically, not trade volume.) By comparison, US imports account for about 15% of GDP.

[econjack]

I believe China still subsidizes shipping, just not to the extent that it used to.

[KTM rider]

looks like E-Bay will take a hit on widget sales delivered through "Speed Pak" from China, and most of these are knock offs of stolen items which should have been imported, sold and delivered from a US warehouse which has destroyed a lot of small companies and private party sales. This allowed foriegners an unfair advantage and ability to steal ("knock off") non patentable inventions which put many small us companies out of business

Throughout my entire life, I was subjected to the buyer paying import duties on items sold to buyers in foreign countries and watched small manufacturers close up shop due to EPA regulations and this unfair trade advantage .

The MSM and socialist media is using everything like this it can to demonize the "Orange Devil"