The European Commission plans to impose a 2 euro surcharge on cheap parcels from outside the EU. The measure is intended in particular to control the huge increase in the flow of parcels from China. Web shops like Temu and Shein can keep their packages from China extra cheap because of a tax exemption for the import of packages with a value under 150 euros. The European Commission wants to do something about this, it announced earlier this year . An internal document, obtained and published by the European news site Euractiv , now shows how the Commission thinks it can tax these packages.
According to the document, Brussels is aiming for an import levy of 2 euros. It is an internal discussion document, not an official proposal.
The money the EU receives from imposing these levies is partly intended to strengthen customs. Given the volume of parcels entering the EU each year, the revenue could run into billions of euros.
The influx has increased at an unprecedented rate in recent years. Last year, 4.6 billion parcels came from outside the European Union to the continent, the vast majority from China. A doubling compared to the previous year. Maroš Šefčovič, European Commissioner for Trade, spoke of a ‘completely new challenge’ in the European Parliament on Tuesday.
Customs complain that they can barely handle the influx of packages. This is especially a problem because European supervisors are concerned about the product safety of some of the Chinese products. Since October, the European Commission has been investigating the web shop Temu, because it may be selling products on a large scale that do not meet the quality requirements or other European regulations.
Temu sells a wide range of products, from clothing to plant sprayers, at very low prices. What is certain is that the webshop has repeatedly sold items that did not comply with the rules, including toys, make-up and weapons. The webshop removes these as soon as it is pointed out to them.
The Commission is also targeting Shein, known as a seller of dirt-cheap clothing. In February, it announced it would also launch an investigation because the online store allegedly violated consumer rights. Both online stores have said they will cooperate with the investigations and will comply with European rules.
Chinese web shops are under much more fire in the United States than in Europe. As part of the trade conflict with China, US President Donald Trump imposed a 120 percent import duty on Chinese packages, which has now been temporarily reduced to 30 percent while China and the US negotiate a trade agreement. Nevertheless, Chinese web shops like Shein, which do everything they can to lower prices, are hit hard by the import duty.
Source: de Volkskrant, Niels Waarlo