Postal traffic into US plunges by more than 80% after Trump ends exemption | US news
Postal traffic to the United States plunged more than 80% after the Trump administration ended a price exemption for low-cost imports, the United Nations postal agency announced on Saturday.
The Universal Postal Union says that it has started to deploy new measures that can help postal operators around the world to calculate and collect rights or taxes, after the United States has eliminated the so-called “minimis exemption” for low value plots.
Eighty-eight-eight postal operators told UPU that they had suspended a postal service in the United States until a solution was implemented with regard to plots linked to the United States worth $ 800 or less, which had been the cut of goods imported to escape customs fees.
“The global network has seen postal traffic to the United States arriving at a quasi-was after the implementation of the new rules on August 29, 2025, which for the first time placed the burden of the collection and delivery of customs funds on transport transporters or the qualified parties approved by the United States and border protection,” the UPU said in a statement.
The UPU said that the information exchanged between postal operators through its electronic network has shown traffic from its 192 member countries – almost all countries of the world – had dropped 81% on August 29, compared to a week earlier.
The agency, based in Bern, in Switzerland, said that the “main operational interruptions” occurred because the airlines and other carriers indicated that they were not willing or capable of receiving such tasks, and foreign postal operators had not established a link with the companies qualified by the CBP.
Before the measure took effect, the postal union sent a letter to the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to express his concerns about his impact.
The exemption from minimis has existed in one form or another since 1938, and the administration says that it has become an escape that foreign companies exploit to escape prices and that criminals use to put drugs in the United States.
Purchases which had previously entered the United States without the need to clean customs now require verification and are subject to the applicable rate of their country of origin, which can vary from 10% to 50%.
Although the change applies to the products of each country, American residents will not have to pay rights on incoming gifts worth $ 100, or up to $ 200 of personal memories of travel abroad, according to the White House.
The UPU said that its members had not received enough time or advice to comply with the procedures described in the executive decree that Donald Trump signed on July 30 to eliminate the admissibility in franchise of low -value goods.
