Plans for a Belgian tax of €2 on small parcels arriving from outside the European Union are being trashed. But from July next year, Belgium will introduce a European tax of €3. The EU OKed the measure earlier this month. At the end of last month, Belgium’s federal government had decided to introduce a parcel tax of €2 on all non-EU parcels, to raise cash, but also to promote EU products. This will now not go ahead.
Belgium ditches €2 parcel tax in favour of €3 European parcel tax on all non-EU parcels
Colin Clapson
Published:
The parcel tax applies to shipments from outside the European Union from countries like the UK and the US and will also apply to the countless small parcels containing cheap goods from China that often arrive via Liège Airport. These Chinese products are regularly of inferior quality. Belgian customs currently struggle to check all these parcels.
On 11 December, the European Union's finance ministers decided to introduce a €3 per parcel levy at European level from July 2026. At the time Belgian finance minister Jan Jambon (Flemish nationalist N-VA) said that the government would examine the impact of the European decision on the Belgian decision taken at the end of last month.
The government has now decided to drop the Belgian tax of €2 per parcel in favour of the higher EU levy that should rake in more cash.
In 2024, some 4.6 billion parcels worth less than €150 entered the European Union. Ninety per cent of these came from China.