Online trade
The EU Parliament wants to stop package flood with a two-euro tax flood
Millions of cheap packages overwhelm Europe’s customs authorities. Now the EU Parliament wants to take a more commitment to dealers such as Shein and Temu – consumers should not pay.
The EU Parliament is for a flat-rate processing fee of two euros for packages imported from third countries. At their plenary session in Strasbourg, the MPs spoke out for a large majority for a corresponding proposal from the European Commission. However, the parliamentarians now called for a review whether such a levy would not ultimately have to be paid by consumers in the EU.
The parliamentarians also spoke out to abolish the current customs exemption for goods worth less than 150 euros. In addition, retailers from third countries should be convinced of setting up warehouses within the EU in order to process customer deliveries. So one wants to create incentives to no longer send packages individually, but bundled to the EU and thereby reduce the package volume.
Barley: “First step to take Shein and Temu to be responsible”
With the help of the measures, they want to relieve the European customs authorities, which, given a flood of twelve million packages arriving daily in the EU, have difficulties according to parliament according to parliament.
Samples showed that EU protection regulations are violated in nine out of ten cases, said Katarina Barley (SPD), Vice President of the EU Parliament. “It is about poor quality, toxic chemicals and incorrect electronics that pose a danger to consumers. The planned fees are a first step to take on platforms such as Temu or Shein.” Temu and Shein are large online marketplaces from the Far East.
The measures are now discussed in the negotiations between the EU Parliament and the Council on a reform of the EU customs regime. The EU countries had recently campaigned for a levy, but the concrete amount left open.
dpa
Source: Stern
