A new crackdown on the study by the European Commission could put Asian e-commerce giants such as Temu and Shein in difficulty who, with their products, flood the European market, largely evading customs controls. To curb the increase in online sales, Brussels is considering preparing a tax to slow the wave of goods sold on sites that evade customs duties and controls. According to what was reported by Financial Times citing sources familiar with the discussions, the Commission is reportedly studying a new tax on the revenues of e-commerce platforms and a per-item processing fee that would make most shipments less competitive.
Hitting shipments from the lower threshold of 150 euros
Data in hand, Brussels wants to prevent an excessive amount of products from Asian online retailers such as Temu (China) and Shein (Chinese but based in Singapore) from flooding the European market. The alarm was raised by the European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic, according to whom this year around 4 billion parcels with a value of less than 150 euros will enter the Union, almost triple compared to 2022. The enormous volume and the the fact that they are below the 150 euro threshold for customs duties means that most products are not checked, leading to an increase in imports of dangerous goods such as toxic toys.
Shein and Temu: what we pay to have everything (almost) free
European institutions are concerned about the unfair competition that local companies face, due to the higher costs needed to comply with community standards, and the negative impact on local economies. For their part, Chinese companies also benefit from subsidized postal costs, which means it is convenient to send cheap goods by air. Among the proposals under study is the elimination of the value threshold of 150 euros below which parcels are exempt from customs duties, a step that the United States is also taking.
The European Union wants to impose duties on low-cost products from Shein and Temu
The other side of this coin, however, is an increased workload for customs officials, who already have to handle huge volumes. Only by taking two huge European ports can we count the volume of products that enter European borders every day. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and the Port of Rotterdam together handle 3.5 million parcels per day, around 40 every second. The number of dangerous products reported by EU countries increased by more than half to over 3,400 in 2023 compared to the previous year.
