Bpost stops accepting parcels for US over tariffs

Belgian postal service Bpost has temporarily suspended shipments to the US due to a lack of clarity regarding the collection of new tariffs.

Per American president Donald Trump’s new tariffs, all shipments to the US will be heavily taxed.

But Bpost said that it had not been given the information or tools needed to properly collect these new fees, RTL reports.

Since no simple procedure is yet available to allow the taxation before shipment, the postal service said that it would rather suspend the service than risk parcels being blocked on arrival.

The shipments concerned are generally small parcels sent between private individuals. Every year, Bpost ships about 100,000 such packages to the United States.

Until now, shipments worth less than $800 were exempt from customs duties. But from 29 August, these will be subject to a 15% tax.

However, US authorities only communicated the new customs procedures a week ago.

“We don't have enough time to set up the tool for collecting these fees before shipment,” said Laura Cerrada Crespo, spokeswoman for Bpost.

“Once we have all these elements in place, we will be able to set up a tool that will allow customers to send these parcels to the United States easily and simply, without having to pay any additional fees.”

Belgium is not the only country to take this decision. Germany, Spain, France and Austria have also temporarily suspended deliveries to the United States with the same objective - to protect consumers.

“This is to avoid unnecessary costs, or parcels being stuck in customs indefinitely, or being subject to unexpected charges on arrival in the United States, since it actually takes a week to deliver a parcel from Belgium to the United States,” said Cerrada Crespo.

“So suspending it today allows us to avoid this uncertainty from 29 August onwards.”

Bpost said that the measure was exceptional and temporary, intended to allow time for procedures to be adapted.

The postal service believes this situation could have been avoided if the US authorities had communicated earlier.