Europe's new import rules are coming for your bargains

Updated: Last week, a small customs fee landed in the EU that may have outsized consequences. Imports of single items from outside the EU are now hit with a new €3 duty, a rule that affects a range of people including electronics hobbyists and techies who prefer their printer toner off-brand. The seller or importer is generally …

[Anonymous Coward]

It is basically a subsidy to stores, flea market sellers, and other types of middlemen.

[squirrel_nutkin]

Uk is Temu EU

And Brits will copy whatever the EU did in 3...2.... Why did you guys "Brexit" again? You're SOOOO independent.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

Why did you guys "Brexit" again? You're SOOOO independent.

Err.. did you read the article? EU charging an import tax, UK isn't. For now, anyway. So-

Electronics and computing hobbyists, on the other hand, are not happy. If you're ordering an ESP32 board (a popular microcontroller SoC that's especially forgiving to newbies) plus some sensors, connectors, relays, and cables – all inexpensive components if you look at them individually – the charges could add up quickly.

I could buy that BoM, turn it into an iThing in the UK saving €3x5+ vs someone trying to make the same iThing in the EU. OK, perhaps not the best example given I'm not going to be able to buy a superyacht to rival Bezos assembling & exporting single units to EU customers but the general principle applies. The UK can set their own import tariffs and duties, if it wants to incentivise or protect its own manufacturing, without being at the mercy of whoever lobbies Brussels the hardest.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

Er, no, you missed the bit that if you try and send those items from the UK to the EU, the same EU import tax applies.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

Er, no, you missed the bit that if you try and send those items from the UK to the EU, the same EU import tax applies.

Err, no. If I assemble components into a single SKU, the EU would then charge the importer €3 based on the assembled item, not the components. So I'd still be able to undercut an EU entity trying to produce the same iThing.

[Dan 55]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

Not even wrong. The new customs duty is €3 per unique HS code charged to the sending business only if the value of the goods is lower than €150 and it's B2C.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

The new customs duty is €3 per unique HS code charged to the sending business only if the value of the goods is lower than €150 and it's B2C.

Yeh, it seems a sledgehammer to crack a nut, which is sadly normal for EUrocracy. The de minimis exemption was traditionally because the cost of collection outweighed the benefit. Now, they're assuming shippers will itemise on a waybill and remit €3 per item to the correct EU entity. Or won't just pocket the money. And it won't prevent items being under declared, make sure they're safe etc etc. And national customs or consumer protection agencies won't get a big influx of cash because the EU's taking 75% of the money for their own slush fund.

And it won't make a 'level playing field' because thanks to EU policies on energy and environmental stuff, the EU just isn't competitive. Especially when for hobbyists who might turn a prototype into a product, most of the stuff like in the article's example just isn't made in the EU, or can't be bought in small quantities. But by insisting on itemised waybills, EUrocrats somewhere will be able to produce spreadsheets and reports about the stuff we want, but the EU can't supply.

Like others have said, it would seem simpler and more efficient to just slap a per-package or tariff based on the declared value, but EUrocrats don't get to expand their empires by taking the easy option.

[Dan 55]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

It is basically the same that the UK will do from October 2028, only it will be done in two stages - first a flat rate customs charge from now which is easier to calculate and then the same customs duty as high value package customs duty from July 2028.

[RMclan]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

There's a reason the new charge is €3, it's because most EU import duty rates are 2% and the previous €150 de minimis x 2% = €3

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

Instead we're at the mercy of whoever lobbies Uk government the hardest, and without the strength of the EU, we're even more vulnerable. Witness the way Stsrmer has caved to Trump over many things, and now drug prices.

You brexitters will be the death of the NHS and the UK in general. We're already vastly poorer due to you. What is it? Warped English exceptionalism or are you shorting the UK?

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

What is it? Warped English exceptionalism or are you shorting the UK?

No, it's just politics. Starmer's never been a fan of UK sovereignty and has thus spent his short reign pandering to both the EU and Trump. The EU also has been busy caving to Trump, ie Ursula promising to buy $750bn of US oil & gas.. which is waaay more than the EUrocracy would ever need. Not even with the number of buildings and staff Brussels employs. The EU flipped being dependent on cheap Russian oil & gas for being dependent on much more expensive US. Genius move from the EU 'leadership' who still rant about the way Russia 'weaponised' gas, even though it was the EU's self-imposed sanctions that did that, and is leading to the deindustrialisation of Europe.

At least with Brexit, the UK electorate is free to exercise their democratic right to flush turds like Starmer, and soon, Burnham.. Who's unlikely to perform any better and probably won't dare call a general election. The EU will still be run by the EPP, which has pretty much zero democratic representation in the UK.

[SundogUK]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

"vastly poorer"

I am glad I don't live in your reality.

[Casca]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

You keep on living in your reality like all right wing muppets

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

I think the point being made is that despite Brexit, successive UK governments have tried to pretend it didn't happen and still slavishly adopt new EU regulations.

[Headley_Grange]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

"On 23 June 2026, the UK Treasury announced an early start to the ending of the current Customs Duties exemption threshold for small import parcels. Instead of the withdrawal on 1 March 2029, it will now take place from 1 October 2028."

https://www.vatcalc.com/united-kingdom/uk-2029-ending-customs-free-135-threshold

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

Funny you should ask. The one genuinely independent thing Brexit produced was the Skilled Worker visa, launched December 2020. Free movement for 450 million EU citizens ended, and in its place any employer with a sponsor licence could hire from the entire planet. No requirement to advertise the job locally first. The 28-day resident labour market test was abolished on day one. The skill bar dropped from degree level to A-level. Salary floors were pegged to what the Home Office calls the going rate, a phrase that sounds like the market rate. It meant the 25th percentile of the occupation's pay distribution, the wage of the bottom quarter, with a further 20% off on the shortage list and 30% off for new entrants. A discount code with a sponsor licence attached. Temu pricing, since you mention it. And unlike the EU workers they replaced, these hires cannot shop around. The visa is tied to the sponsor, and losing the job means 60 days to find a new one or leave the country. A workforce that cannot bargain and cannot quit suppresses wages for everyone standing next to it.

Enforcement, you ask. The National Audit Office found that just 1% of sponsors had ever been referred for compliance checks, and over half of those were still waiting for a visit. Whether the worker actually does the coded job is checked during those visits, so in practice it is barely checked at all. The Home Office forecast 360,000 visas over the route's first three years and issued 931,000. One care provider, dormant since September 2021, had 498 visas granted from May 2022 before anyone looked.

The pitch was that migration pays for itself, which is true at market wages and false at the discounted ones. The OBR's own modelling has a low-wage migrant arriving at 25 costing the exchequer roughly £150,000 by pension age and approaching half a million by 80, figures that already include keeping infrastructure per head constant. The same modelling has an average-wage arrival contributing over £300,000. The whole fiscal case hinged on wage levels, and the system was built to recruit below them. Wage savings privatised, the schools, GP lists and housing demand socialised, and the Treasury now acts surprised by the hole. The only reliable winners were the sponsoring employers.

Net migration tripled to a peak of 944,000 a year. On the care route dependants outnumbered the workers, 203,000 against 146,000 in 2023 alone, and since none of the fixes were retrospective the family visas are still landing a year after the route closed, 180 Cameroonian care-route dependant grants against 12 for workers in the year to March. Meanwhile a quarter of a million British nationals left in 2024, three quarters of the leavers under 35. All of it hit a country already short of homes, just as the Renters' Rights Act persuaded small landlords to sell. Good luck renting, indeed.

As for the celebrated crackdown of 2024 and 2025, check what survived it. A new entrant can still be sponsored at 70% of the going rate, and the going rate is now merely the median. The salary list still discounts the general threshold to £33,400. A temporary shortage list quietly keeps sub-degree roles sponsorable at a £25,000 floor. The Migration Advisory Committee is already recommending a return to bottom-quartile going rates. And should you wonder which companies used the machine hardest, the Home Office publishes no company-level sponsorship numbers and has refused parliamentary questions on the certificate data. The white paper swears overseas recruitment will never again be a cheap alternative to fair pay. Nobody legislates against a thing that was not happening, and nobody keeps the discounts if they mean it.

We did not copy the EU here. Brussels has never run anything like it. This shambles are proudly homegrown.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Uk is Temu EU

Funny you should ask. The one genuinely independent thing Brexit produced was the Skilled Worker visa, launched December 2020.

There have also been some trade deals. UK can negotiate those because the UK is sovereign. Belgium can't, because Brussels holds exclusive (in)competency over trade. Or there's foreign policy. Yvette Cooper is free to do diplomacy as the UK sees fit. The EU is represented by Kallas, who Trump, Rubio, Xi, Putin won't meet because she's an f'ng idiot. Or there was the Panicdemic. The UK negotiated and bought vaccines. Ursuala negotiated a bulk take or pay deal for the whole EU by texts, which she promptly 'lost' and loaded the costs onto EU members, whether they needed vaccines or not. Oh, and threatened to seize vaccines the UK had bought.

Or the elephant in the room.. debt. The EU loves debt. It has €750bn due in the next couple of years, and is working on a €2.5tn budget that will need more debt issued. Then there's the €90bn 'loan' to Ukraine, which is underwritten by EU members, whether they want that debt or not. But the EU will probably refinance the €750bn by issuing more debt, and expecting EU members to take on a share of that debt. Which isn't how the EU was supposed to work, but is how a federal superstate works. But it's also why the EU is inventing taxes like this one because membership dues don't cover the EU's lavish spending.

[OssieK]

Exactly

I'm not stopping buying non HP toner. It's still cheaper even with the markup

[MattieD]

Seems like nothing more than a money grab

If it was €3 per parcel rather than €3 per tariff line-item then I think most people would complain but generally be ok with it.

There's also the issue - using the electronics example in the article - where the cost of the tariff exceeds the cost of the goods. Surely that can't be morally right?

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

Surely that can't be morally right?

Since when have morals ever troubled politicians? They just want our money.

[Filippo]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

>Surely that can't be morally right?

I know I'm going to get downvotes, but... the answer would be, it can be morally right if the main reason the item is so cheap is that it was produced immorally (e.g. under horribly unregulated workers or environmental conditions). This is sadly the case for a lot of these items.

It's still annoying as hell, of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

I know I'm going to get downvotes, but...it would be even worse for those poor souls to have their horrible jobs taken away from them, they won't have any income at all. Hunger isn't a cool alternative. The world is a cruel place, sadly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

Luckily actual communist states will feed everyone, especially the poor and starving. If they can.

Socialist states will set up a welfare program that prevents mass starvation, but costs lots to run, and deosnt actually work, leaving charitiesto pull in the slack.

Capitalist states, well, being poor is a you problem.

Facist ones blame the problem on someone else. Usually a racial, religious or cultural minority*, or some outside oppressor. Kulturkampf for the loss.

* Muslims. Women. LGBTQIA+. The scots, welsh, irish, basques, etc.

In every state, the problem is the greedy few at the top leaving crumbs for the rest.

Lets see how downvoted this gets. And if your downvoting this because I've noted how fascism blames whatever 'other"is the target of this weeks two minute hate, ask yourself which of those others is less deserving of equality. Which of them is less deserving of the plain good old fashioned good manners of being addressed in the name and form they request. Who deseves to be given worse treatment becuase they visibily arent in YOUR tribe. And then tell me why.

[Catkin]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

I don't believe this new charge does anything to significantly help those workers. The collected charges don't go to them and it simply gives a market leg up to middlemen who add no inherent value.

[Missing Semicolon]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

It's the subsidy that nukes local sellers. When you can buy a little bag with a gizmo in it for less than the cost of posting that parcel next door, something is up. China Post has a special ebay rate for outbound parcels, and Royal mail have to forward them. Post to China? About £7, last time I looked.

[Spazturtle]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

Because China is classified as a developing country by the WTO and UPU which grants then certain benefits. When you in the UK buy something from China and use special rate shipping then that is subsidised by the UK taxpayer, as China Post bills the UK treasury for all or part of the cost of shipping.

[Pirate Peter]

Re: Seems like nothing more than a money grab

"where the cost of the tariff exceeds the cost of the goods."

that's the point, they want to kill the market and B2C for lots of little packages, they want the likes of the Chinese business flooding the customs / mail centres with millions of A5 or smaller Jiffy bags to say its no longer viable and withdraw from the market

the problem for the consumer is there are no alternatives outside china who can provide the services,

I have often wondered for a longtime how it can be economically viable to buy a part costing less than a pound (inc P&P) from china and get it shipped to my door in a few weeks

[Irongut]

"Everything that was in the US and Europe is coming into this country in the next 12 months."

Given these items are only shipped when bought, I would be very surprised if the population of the UK could buy as much as the combined populations of the USA and EU!

[SundogUK]

This. Why on earth would this change the demand in the UK?

[steviebuk]

I'd

get behind this to bring the downfall of the likes of Temu in regards to clothes and other such items we may make in the UK. But, as the Tory fuck whits allowed the sale of the chip plant in the Isle of Wight to the Chinese and we barely if at all make any components in the UK anymore, then how can you charge for the electronics to "protect manufactories in the EU" when there are none.

[Dan 55]

Re: I'd

15 Biggest Semiconductor Companies and Suppliers in Europe (before they get taken over by some US vulture capital outfit).

[elsergiovolador]

Re: I'd

The thinking behind this idiocy is that if you now have to pay extra 3 EUR for your Arduino, maybe you'll start your own chip factory to save money.

[Dan 55]

Re: I'd

It's more about the stuff sold on Shein and Temu.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: I'd

Yes, they think you'll start spinning cotton in your shed to avoid the charge.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'd

At work, in a Housing Association, had the head in hands moment when I heard one of the customer service folks saying how she bought some cheap t-shirts on Temu.

Jesus!

[SundogUK]

Re: I'd

Why the objection?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'd

You enjoy slave labour then?

[steviebuk]

Re: I'd

But do they have shop fronts selling their stuff? If you want something like PCBWay in the UK, I don't think there is anywhere anymore. I might be wrong but I'm sure someone said the last one they used was on Wales then that left, again, might be wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'd like to add

The Tory ******* who let ICL fail and sold it to Fujitsu. That went great. And Acorn to Olivetti. Letting Psion sell off Epoc32 instead of making it the OS for the EU

And damn them for letting ARM be absobed by Softbank. In triplicate for the price.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'd like to add

Well, EPOC begat Symbian and did kind of, on its own merits, effectively become the smartphone OS for the EU / Europe, at least until the point that Nokia got too smug and started thinking that no one could breach their moat and didn't keep evolving fast enough (and in a single focused direction, rather than in all kinds of competing directions). And we sadly know how that ended.

The thing that was really most surprising for me to later learn was that back in Nokia's heyday, they were actually only ever a minor share of the market in the USA. From a "rest of the world" perspective it seemed that Nokia and Ericsson pretty much dominated most of the mobile phone market, in every sector from basic phones upwards, and it was just completely unthinkable/unbelievable that they wouldn't have been similarly significant players in the USA. Sure, back then, before they got on board with 3G and 4G, the US mobile networks were largely mostly weird and non-standard (ie, non-GSM), requiring specially made hardware, which was a bit of an obstacle, but it also seems that Nokia just didn't market their phones in the USA well enough. It's no use having the best product if not enough people know about it…

[IamAProton]

3 euro per package would have been "acceptable"

but 3€ per "line" is just robbery.

Besides that Aliexpress already found ways around this problem 3 euro on an item that costs 10 cents is pure nonsense.

I'm not a big aliexpress shopper, too much junk and not so cheap at all, but sometimes the same poor quality item in europe or on scamazon costs 10x the already high aliexpress price.

For sure I'm not going to buy cheap junk at amazon prices, but i can restrain myself.

Just a quick example: few hours ago I ordered on aliexpress ( from warehouse in Paland) a car scanner (not pro, not basic obdreader)

it has a shenzhen special display leftover that nobody wants (800x480) and most likely the whole thing is made from obsolete phone parts, good enough for me if it does the job but it's worth perhaps 30€.

Amazon price: 200€

manufacturer price: 149€ (can go lower on more shady looking sites, allegedly in europe)

Aliexpres price: 126€

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 3 euro per package would have been "acceptable"

Chances are the €126 is the actual factory gate price.

Theres one factory on china that makes 90% of the worlds microwaves. Turkey has one that does 80% of the worlds TV's. Badgeneering is the problem.

[Fr. Ted Crilly]

Now then...

How about removing the 'developing nation international postal subsidy' from China.

Suddenly those it cost more to post than it costs purchases will have to come back into the real world...

[Catkin]

Re: Now then...

I recommend reading about the origin of those rules and why they're difficult to change, it's all rather ironic.

[mark l 2]

Re: Now then...

All my recent orders from Aliexpress and Temu have been delivered by courier services such as Evri and Yodel. I can't remember the last time i had a parcel from China come via the Royal Mail, so im not sure that the international discounted postage is really making any difference to the price of stuff coming from China, as surely the couriers aren't obligated to give them a discount (other than for however much volume of parcels they are shipping)

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Now then...

I ordered something from Aliexpress last week and it is coming by Royal Mail.

[Goodwin Sands]

Re: Now then...

>How about removing the 'developing nation international postal subsidy' from China.

Surely it has been removed? The US rightly kicked up a fuss about it a few years ago.

[Tron]

Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

Stamps, books, Kpop CDs etc. They can only be bought from where they are and an extra £3 tax per order would really mount up. That would be another good reason to hate your government and vote them out.

[Like a badger]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

"That would be another good reason to hate your government and vote them out."

Well, the first part yes, I hate all politicians all of the time. I'm an equal opportunity hatist, and gender, ethnicity, race makes no difference.

The second part, well....replace them with who? There seems to be a global shortage of political competence, so it doesn't even matter which country you're in. No matter our good intentions, idiots always get in. At least the Yanks decided they wanted a stupid, lying, geriatric, racist, rapist, boorish, stealing, fuckwitted convict, and they've got exactly what they wanted and deserved.

[gryphon]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

Agreed.

To paraphrase Douglas Adams.

You've got to be careful who you vote for in case the wrong lizard gets in.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

How do you vote out European Commission?

[Dan 55]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

Vote for AfD, RN, Vox, PiS, Brothers of Italy, Golden Dawn, etc... and get them all into their respective countries' governments just like Musk and Trump want, then stand back and watch as something which genuinely improves people's lives collapses.

[SundogUK]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

It's called Brexit. Or Polexit. Ot Hunexit. Or...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

After Brexit all that died fast when people saw what comes after...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

The European commission cares more about it's citizens than any UK government has in my lifetime. Yes, I'm still angry about Brexit...

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Hopefully this excludes collectibles.

What, and replace it with separate bureaucracies for the 27 memebe states?

[Andy The Hat]

The EU giveth then taketh away

"Trump is an idiot! Tariffs are terrible! Tariffs don't work! Free market economies rule! He's hurting his own people by making money with stealth taxes!"

"We could have more tariffs ...? What a perfect idea!"

[Charlie Clark]

Re: The EU giveth then taketh away

Tariffs are part of trade and every country has them, but they cost time and money to administer and so are generally limited to specific products from specific countries.

Trump's idea was to try and use blanket tariffs to try and punish foreign countries and force them to produce in America, whilst collecting revenue from the imports in the meantime. It was never going to be practicable to get companies to replace all production to the US and, in some industries such as carmaking the tarifffs ballooned the cost of production due to cross-border supply chains, so it remained a tax on consumption.

The EU is looking for ways of dealing with a flood* of imports by post from China and this tariff is supposed to reduce the incentive of consumers to buy so much directly from China. The same products can still be bought from European resellers, yes there is a markup, but this also makes it a little easier to enforce standards and product liability. As others have noted, it's not sure whether these measures will succeed but per item is likely to be more effective than Trump's percentage approach. Personally, I've largely given up importing stuff directly from China when I can get the same items from local resellers – payment and returns are just much easier.

* Volumes have got up so much over the last few years that providers are struggling to cope and it's not electronics that make up the bulk but "fast fashion".

[IamAProton]

Re: The EU giveth then taketh away

"The same products can still be bought from European resellers, yes there is a markup, but this also makes it a little easier to enforce standards and product liability"

I'd happily pay a reasonable premium if the product sold in europe have to pass a minimum quality test, but even for expensive products made here ( think about cars and house appliances) it's a race to the bottom, so with no guarantees on quality i'll take a gamble on something cheap or reasonably cheap.

I'm not going to buy Timberland shoes because I know they are not worth the money, I'd rather buy Tomberlond or LumberLand but not for Timberland price.

There is no simple solution, perhaps they should find a way to improve the quality of what is sold in europe, so if I buy here I know it's not crap and if it is I'll get my money back, then I'd be more willing to have the bureaucrats get their cut.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: The EU giveth then taketh away

Well, I'm also talking about "legitimate" look-a-like products – the regulation makes this easier, assuming they're not contravening other laws, which might include trademarks protection – I'm just as unlikely as you to want to pay a premium for a label for something also made in a sweatshop. So, it's not an anti-China tariff as such, as stop flooding our distribution networks with packages.

This will, inevitably, reduce access to some of the more innovative and dynamic electronics that the Chinese system produces, but it does also produce a lot of shit, some of which is downright dangerous.

[RMclan]

€3 is peanuts

Just wait until all the EU countries implement the radiometric testing requirement that Italy implemented in 2022 and everyone else will implement eventually.

From EU Council Directive 2013/59/ EURATOM, Italy has set up the situation where metal products which come under 600 different HS Codes are required to have a Radiometric Testing certificate. The HS Codes include scrap metal, standard forms (ingots, sheets, pipes, cables, etc.) and finished items such as hand tools (saws, hammers, spanners, screwdrivers etc.), ladders, chains, brake discs, brake calipers, etc.

Regardless of the value or size of a shipment, if it contains any items with any of these 600 HS Codes then the shipment needs to be Radiometrically Tested. There is a standard fee for the testing, of €149

We've had shipments of car parts and other items going to Italy worth as little as €20 returned to UK (at our expense) because the customer has refused the €149 inspection fee. This fee applies to both B2B and B2C shipments.

[Andy 73]

Law of unintended consequences

Yet another example of governments announcing "we will do <X> to stop <bad thing>", where X and bad thing are only tangentially related.

Some people will accept this at face value. Others will look for the unintended consequences.

The per-line-item charge will certainly harm small businesses wanting to sell into the EU (an intended consequence, but justified by implying that it's targeting Temu, not mom and pop hobby shops), and increase prices to consumers (because, well everything increases prices to consumers).

One probably unintended consequence is that it is likely to also entrench the very companies it's claimed to stop - Temu, Amazon et. al. are more than capable of setting up IT systems and logistics that avoid the tax. Niche businesses that grew out of the sudden availability of global trade for everyone are likely to struggle. For products that rely on a diffuse community of supporters worldwide, this is another nail in the coffin - generic Temu tat will ultimately win.