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The
European Commission later this month will suggest scrapping a
current 150 euros ($161) threshold under which items can be
bought duty free, the report said.
Under current EU regulations, packages purchased online from a
non-EU country are not subject to customs duties if their value
is under 150 euros.
Two billion parcels with a declared value of less than 150 euros
arrived in the EU from outside countries in 2023, according to
the Commission, which says "the sheer volumes of e-commerce are
testing customs' limits".
The EU has been discussing abolishing the limit as part of a
customs reform project proposed by the Commission in May 2023,
but it could now seek to speed up its adoption to counter the
surge of cheap imports, the FT report said.
"We are fully supportive of efforts by lawmakers to reform the
de minimis provision," a spokesperson for Shein said, while
AliExpress parent Alibaba, Temu, and the European Union did not
immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Critics of Shein and Temu in the United States have already
complained that they use import tax exemption there to undercut
rivals and avoid customs inspections of their products.
The practice helps the two companies offer dresses for as little
as $8 and smart watches for $25 to shoppers around the world.
($1 = 0.9309 euros)
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Additional reporting
by Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Rashmi Aich)
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