EU Commission to Propose Canceling Duty-Free Threshold, Targeting SHEIN, AliExpress, and TEMU

TapTechNews July 3rd news, according to the Financial Times citing three informed sources, the European Commission will later this month propose to cancel the current "$167 (TapTechNews note: currently about 1174 yuan)" threshold for duty-free for goods below. One of the officials disclosed that the main targeted platforms are fast fashion platform SHEIN, AliExpress under Alibaba and TEMU under Pinduoduo.

The European Commission said that last year the EU region imported 2.3 billion items with a price of less than $167. Data shows that the e-commerce import volume in the local area in April this year has more than doubled year-on-year to 350,000 items, that is, almost two for every household.

This new rule will apply to any online retailer that ships directly to EU customers from outside the EU. And another potential measure is to force large platforms to conduct online VAT payment registration, regardless of the value of the goods.

By contrast, the US e-commerce giant Amazon typically uses European sellers to conduct business locally and is not expected to be affected.

Another EU official said that the European Commission has already proposed to cancel the tariff threshold last year, but now may seek to expedite the adoption of this proposal to deal with the surge in cheap imported goods. However, another official is "not optimistic" about the new regulation - given that the new system will increase the workload of customs officers and the number of customs officers is already stretched thin, so it may be very difficult for EU countries to agree.

In addition, the responses from all parties are as follows:

TEMU: The company's growth does not rely on cheap goods. We are open to and support any policy adjustments made by legislators that are in line with the interests of consumers - as long as these policies are fair.

AliExpress: The company is cooperating with legislators to ensure being in a compliant position in the EU market in the past, present and future.

SHEIN: Fully support the EU's efforts to reform tariffs.