Postal traffic into the United States plunged by more than 80% after the Trump administration ended a tariff exemption for low-cost imports, the United Nations postal agency said Saturday.
The Universal Postal Union says it has started rolling out new measures that can help postal operators around the world calculate and collect duties, or taxes, after the U.S. eliminated the so-called “de minimis exemption” for lower-value parcels.
Eighty-eight postal operators have told the UPU that they have suspended some or all postal services to the United States until a solution is implemented with regard to U.S.-bound parcels valued at $800 or less, which had been the cutoff for imported goods to escape customs charges.
“The global network saw postal traffic to the U.S. come to a near-halt after the implementation of the new rules on Aug. 29, 2025, which for the first time placed the burden of customs duty collection and remittance on transportation carriers or U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency-approved qualified parties,” the UPU said in a statement.
The UPU said information exchanged between postal operators through its electronic network showed traffic from its 192 member countries — nearly all the world countries — had fallen 81% on Aug. 29, compared to a week earlier.
Hot take: ending Chinese drop-shipping for cheap junk from Temu, etc. might actually be a good thing.
Hot take almost everything you own was partially or fully made in China or other Asian countries
not everyone buys from temu, some chinese products for asian business owners need the other stuff especially around asian related foods ingredients.
We’ve thrown out the baby, but atleast we got rid of that awful bathwater.
Yeah it’s definitely not how it should be gone about, but I think this was far more bathwater than baby.
Yeah, we’ve had a problem for a very long time. The tariffs should have been in place years to decades ago. We let US companies purchase from other countries and then resell in the US for easy profit. We allowed it to the point where U.S. manufacturing atrophied to the brink of non-existence.
We need a massive federal program to bring manufacturing back through small companies. Giant incentives to start manufacturing businesses. Create infrastructure to provide raw materials at cost to these companies by taxing the piss out big companies.
Once you can source plastic and metal goods in the US again, then start running tariffs, and only run it on goods that we can affordably manufacture here.
None of these manufacturing companies need to have yacht owners running them. Engineer it to keep it small. Force them to put the profits back into the people. Hell, maybe force them to be employee owned to get the grant.
Sounds like you wish for a planned economy, like China has it.
But why are you guys voting for fascists, liberals and not communists if you want communism (profits going to the people), and a planned economy?
You have no right to claim you know who I voted for.
To be fair in the US you have 2 realistic options and OPs description applies to both… unfortunately the case in a few places right now.
Ok, enlighten me. You don’t even need to tell me who you voted for, just tell me the percentage of votes the communist party got in the last presidential election, and in one state of your choice for the senate.