From Friday the Belgian Post Office Bpost won’t be sending any more parcels to the United States. Bpost is suspending its parcel service to the US due to a lack of clarity regarding the levy that authorities there will impose on parcels arriving in the country from abroad. Bpost’s spokeswoman Veerle Van Mierlo told VRT News that “We want to prevent parcels being stuck somewhere because no import levy has been paid”.
Up until now the US authorities granted a so-called ‘De Minimis’ exemption for parcels entering the United States from abroad with a value of less than 800 US Dollar. However, from Friday 29 August the ‘De Minimis’ exemption will no longer apply.
Bpost’s Veele Van Mierlo told VRT News that "The problem is that there still isn’t any system in place to collect or pay the import levy. In order to prevent problems from arising, we have decided to temporarily suspend the sending of parcels to the United States”.
"The American authorities have still not given any clarity regarding the correct procedures and systems for the exchange of data and for the collection and payment of the levy. We won’t be sending any parcels until an arrangement has been worked out with US customs and postal operators. We want to avoid parcels getting stuck somewhere because something hasn’t been paid."
Although the De Minimis exemption won’t be scrapped until Friday 29 August, Bpost is suspending the sending of parcels to the United States from this Friday (22 August). The Belgian post office says that this is to ensure that parcels sent from Belgium arrive in the United States before the De Minimis exemption has been scrapped.