In the wake of the U.S. suspending its duty-free “de minimis” exemption on August 29, postal traffic to the country dipped more than 80%, according to the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which is the United Nations’ specialized agency for global postal cooperation.
In response, the UPU has started deploying a solution to help postal operators resume delivery to the United States, the group said Friday. The solution enables postal operators to access a landed-cost calculator via an application programming interface (API) that can be plugged into their retail and counter solutions. That approach lets postal operators calculate and collect the required duties from customers at origin.
“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,” UPU Director General Masahiko Metoki said in a release.
According to the UPU, the global mail network saw postal traffic to the U.S. come to a near halt after the implementation of the new rules on August 29, which for the first time placed the burden of customs duty collection and remittance on transportation carriers or U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency-approved qualified parties. Carriers, such as airlines, signaled they were unwilling or unable to bear this responsibility and postal operators had not yet established a link to the list of CBP qualified parties, causing major operational disruptions.
The resulting data exchanged between postal operators via the UPU’s electronic network shows that traffic from UPU member countries to the U.S. was down 81% on August 29 – the day the regulation was implemented – compared to the previous Friday.
Furthermore, 88 postal operators informed the UPU they have suspended some or all postal services to the U.S. until a solution is implemented, highlighting the widespread impact of the Trump Administration’s Executive Order eliminating the de minimis exemption for low-value goods.
