An Post chief executive David McRedmond has joined 19 other postal groups in Europe in calling for a six-month delay to the introduction of a €3 charge on small parcels from online purchases originating from outside the European Union.
In a letter dated May 29th to European commissioner Maros Sefcovic, the chief executives said the July 1st deadline for the changes to the customs regime would have a “severe impact” on SMEs, consumers, postal traffic and the “broader ecosystem of cross-border ecommerce”.
“The final legal text will be available only four weeks before the due date of 1st of July, making it impossible for businesses, merchants and operators to be fully compliant,” the letter states.
“We therefore request that its implementation be delayed by at least six months to allow sufficient preparation time for all stakeholders.”
Currently, there is no customs duty on ecommerce packages entering the EU where the goods are valued at €150 or less. From July 1st, a duty of €3 for each item in a parcel will apply to goods bought online from non-EU countries, including the UK.
While the postal chiefs said “significant progress” had been made on developing a system for the payment of the duty, the transition “depends heavily” on the readiness of non-EU postal operators, ecommerce platforms and SMEs.
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They noted that postal imports represent less than 5 per cent of total import volume from China in most EU member states and that postal operators predominantly serve fragmented, low-value and socially inclusive traffic, including SME exports and consumer-to-consumer exchanges, where there is often no alternative.
They added that most non-EU postal traffic flows from the UK, Switzerland, Norway and the United States, adding that the new customs levy could create “unintended trade tensions” and have a negative impact on European consumers as “millions of parcels” would have to be returned.
The postal operators stressed that a lack of clarity and the short implementation period could result in “divergent interpretations” in different member states and result in “distortions within the internal market”.
In addition to An Post, the letter was signed by the heads of postal operators in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. It was also signed by Tobias Meyer, chief executive of the Germany-based DHL Group, one of the world’s largest logistics companies.
A European Commission spokesperson said it was “assessing” the content of the letter but indicated that it was sticking with its deadline.
“We have been in constant contact with stakeholders, including postal operators, on this matter since January. Our timeline remains the same.”
They also noted that a guidance document was published earlier this week to “ensure that stakeholders and customs authorities are prepared well in advance”.