The Council of the European Union (EU) published its first reading on the Union Customs Code earlier this week. A handling fee for distance-sale imports is noted in the document, but the amount remains unset. The document notes there will be “a lower fee applying to goods released from customs warehouses for distance sales.” Earlier this year, the Council and European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on establishing the Union Customs Code and the European Union Customs...

In recent separate filings, the Postal Service has asked its regulator for a temporary holiday price increase on domestic packages and changes to two international products to align its products with changes to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Convention. The peak-season price change, if approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), would impact only domestic package services, including Ground Advantage and Priority Mail, from October 4 until January 17, 2027. No international products...

Customs and Border Protection’s new process for informal entry of postal shipments took effect on July 24, the same day as the new Section 301 tariffs that the Trump administration imposed. This is not a coincidence: CBP’s new customs rules on merchandise imported by mail and valued at $2500 or less were established to ensure duty parity on postal and commercial shipments. Under the previous temporary process, postal shipments paid only the Section 122 tariffs, which expired on July 24, and...