Australia Post will resume all shipping to the United States by 25 September, after suspending postage in August amid the U.S.’ tariff policies.
The U.S. ended its tax exemption on parcels worth under US$800 (A$1,213) last month, with these packages now subjected to country-specific tariffs. Australia Post halted services to the U.S. alongside carriers from countries like the United Kingdom and France, due to a lack of guidelines on collecting the new taxes.
“Along with more than 190 other postal providers internationally, we’ve been caught in a fast-moving situation not of our making,” said Australia Post executive general manager of Parcel, Post & eCommerce services, Gary Starr. “The real impact has been on our customers who export their goods to the U.S. accessing our cost-efficient postal service, so we’ve been working around the clock to find a solution.”
“While we are planning to lift the temporary suspension on Thursday 25 September, if we are able to lift this earlier, we absolutely will.”
Australia Post has been working with cross-border commerce platform Zonos to resume Business Contract and My Post Business deliveries, it said.
It also plans to resume non-business parcel deliveries to the U.S. under a forthcoming deal with the U.S. Postal Service network. Letters and gifts worth under US$100 (A$152) are still exempt from U.S. tariffs.
The U.S. scrapped its ‘de minimis’ tax exemption for all countries from 29 August, after ending the exemption on shipments from China and Hong Kong in May.
While Australia Post said at the time that U.S. officials expected the new tariffs on these parcels to be pre-paid, the U.S. did not explain how the taxes would be collected.
At least 88 postal carriers worldwide have fully or partially halted services to the U.S. since the end of the de minimis exemption was announced, including carriers from Japan, India, New Zealand, and much of Europe.
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