Yesterday, the EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council reached an agreement on the elimination of the customs threshold of 150 euro which allows goods with a value of less than this figure to enter the European Union without having to pay customs duties. The agreement, which has among its objectives that of countering the unfair competition against European traders provides for Customs duties shall therefore apply to all goods which enter the EU, aligning the system with existing EU rules of value added tax on imported goods.

The new rule will come into force once it is the EU Customs Data Hub, the central platform proposed by the EU to engage with customs and strengthen the controls which are scheduled to come into operation in 2028. The Hub is currently being negotiated between the Council and the European Parliament as part of the broader reform of the EU customs framework. Given the urgency of introducing the new measures, the Council committed itself to working towards a simple and temporary solution involving the imposition of duties customs on such goods as soon as possible in 2026 and until the entry into operation of the customs data centre in 2028. The works to develop the solution will continue in the coming weeks.

Announcing the agreement, Ecofin highlighted that the estimates show that up to 65% of small parcels entering the EU are to avoid customs duties on imports, and that this, in addition to having an impact on competitiveness of EU companies, also raises concerns in terms of given the incentive for non-European companies to Split shipments into individual packages when sending goods Union. According to the European Commission, in 2024 91% of all e-commerce shipments valued at less than €150 came from China.