Australia Post will resume parcel deliveries to the United States from Monday, almost four weeks after services were interrupted over changes to the country’s customs and import tariff rules.
Mail services globally were scrambling after the Trump administration eliminated the de minimis exemption, which allowed four million low-value packages and parcels to arrive in the the country duty free ever day.
Business and retail customers were impacted when Australia Post joined a host of international operators by partially suspending mail to the US on August 26, although gifts valued under US$100 and letters and documents with no commercial value were unaffected by the change.
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In welcome news, Australia Post confirmed Business Contract and My Post Business customers will be able to resume sending parcels to the US from September 22.
But retail customers will have to wait more than two weeks longer — until October 7 — to be able to send all parcels via the Post Office Network.
Australia Post is working to bring that date forward.
In its update on Friday, the postal service said it had worked with Zonos, a US Customs and Border Protection-authorised third-party provider, to get things moving.
However the solution does mean that to meet new US requirements, Business Contract and MyPost Business customers will need to register with Zonos.
“We’re pleased postal sending to the US for business customers will resume three days ahead of schedule,” Australia Post’s executive general manager of parcel, post and ecommerce services Gary Starr said, after the original resumption date was expected to be September 25.
“We know our customers have felt the impact and disruption from changes the US Government made to customs and import tariff rules, and we have been working around the clock to re-start sending as soon as possible.”
In a statement from July, the White House said it was taking “decisive action” on the de minimis exemption to close a “catastrophic loophole” used to “evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products that harm American workers and businesses” into the US.
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