US Postal Service will accept packages from China, Hong Kong after freeze

Postal Service says working with US border agency on ‘efficient collection mechanism’ for Donald Trump’s China tariffs.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has said it will accept parcels from China again, reversing a suspension that followed President Donald Trump’s decision to end a trade provision used by retailers to ship low-value packages duty-free to the US.

USPS said in a statement that it would continue accepting “all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts”, effective as of Wednesday.

“The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery,” it said.

The Trump administration imposed an additional 10-percent tariff on Chinese goods and closed the “de minimis” exemption that allows US shoppers to avoid paying tariffs for shipments below $800 from China.

USPS did not immediately comment on whether its temporary suspension had been tied to Trump’s order ending de minimis shipments from China, which came into force just after midnight on Tuesday.

“There has really been absolutely zero time for anyone to prepare for this,” Maureen Cori, co-founder at New York-based consultancy Supply Chain Compliance, told the Reuters news agency.

“What we really need is direction from the government on how to handle this without warning or notice.”

Trump had threatened his country’s largest trading partners with steep tariffs for weeks, even before he took office on January 20.

While Trump went ahead with the 10-percent tariffs on Chinese goods this week, he has paused 25-percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico as the two countries pledged to tackle drug trafficking and irregular migration at their respective borders with the US.

China responded to Trump’s move by announcing its own retaliatory measures, including 15-percent tariffs on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US.

The Chinese Ministry of Finance also announced on Tuesday that there would be 10-percent tariffs on imports of US crude oil, agricultural machinery, large-displacement vehicles and pick-up trucks.

Beijing said Washington’s decision “seriously violates World Trade Organization rules, does nothing to resolve its own problems, and disrupts normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States”.