EU finance ministers have agreed to scrap the bloc’s long-standing duty exemption on low-value parcels from platforms such as Temu and Shein, accelerating efforts to curb the surge of cheap Chinese imports entering the single market.
At present, goods worth under €150 can enter the EU without customs duties when shipped directly to consumers—a loophole widely used by Chinese-founded e-commerce giants. Several member states, backed by the European Commission, have pushed to abolish the exemption from the start of next year, rather than in 2028 as originally proposed.
An EU official said the 27 governments would now work on a “simple, temporary solution” to enable earlier implementation. Ministers will discuss the final proposal at their next meeting on December 12.
France, one of the strongest advocates for rapid action, welcomed the breakthrough. Finance Minister Roland Lescure said the decision marked “a key step for the protection of European consumers and the internal market,” adding that it would help keep non-compliant or unsafe products out of the EU. The move, he argued, represents “a major step for the economic sovereignty of the European Union.”
EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said the scale of the problem had become impossible to ignore, noting that 4.6 billion parcels were imported into the bloc last year, with numbers still rising.
Alongside ending the exemption, Brussels is advancing plans for a €2 handling fee on small packages, though member states have yet to agree on the final amount. Some governments are already acting independently: Romania has introduced its own €5 levy on low-value imports.
