The Italian government is studying a crackdown on small parcels from non-EU countries, in particular those with a value of less than 150 euros. The majority, according to government officials, is thinking of introducing an additional tax on small non-EU postal parcels to be included in the budget law.
The tax that the government of Rome wants to impose
The objective is to limit competition from large fashion and clothing portals, especially Chinese ones, which offer products at very competitive prices. The proposal comes after the possibility of including it within the anti-fast fashion competition bill, as initially hypothesized by Mimit, had faded due to calendar reasons. How would the tax work? This would be a contribution for each shipment under 150 euros coming from non-EU countries – aligned with the topic that will be discussed tomorrow at Ecofin – which provides for the elimination of the duty exemption threshold for parcels of the same value. France has already adopted similar measures.
The discussion in Brussels over the crackdown on small parcels
On November 13th, the 27 Economy Ministers, meeting at Ecofin, will, as expected, give the political green light to the abolition of the exemption, the first step of the expected reform to bring order to the deluge of low-value shipments, often coming from large Chinese e-commerce platforms.
After the ministers’ approval, the dossier will move on to the trilogue between the Council, Parliament and Commission, which according to a European official should be concluded by the end of the year. The effective elimination will take place as soon as the “EU Customs Data Hub” is operational, the new common IT platform intended to manage import flows in real time. The hub, still under negotiation, should come into operation in 2028, but some countries – starting with France – are pushing to bring forward the times.
A tax on Temu and Shein parcels: two euros on each shipment
According to data from the European Commission, 4.6 billion parcels under 150 euros were sent to the EU in 2024, of which 91 percent came from China. Major retailers include Shein, Aliexpress, and Temu.
