Did Europe stop buying, or did the parcels find another way in?

Transcript

1. Since July, most cheap parcels ordered online from outside the EU
2. pay at least €3 at the border.
3. In Belgium, which receives more of these parcels than any other EU country,
4. customs counted about half as many in July as a year before.
5. Did Europe stop buying, or did the parcels find another way in?
6. The €3 is per kind of item.
7. 5 T-shirts: €3.
8. Add a watch: €6.
9. Last year, the average item was worth under €9.
10. By law, a business normally owes the charge, not you.
11. Temu and AliExpress add it at checkout anyway.
12. Shein says its prices include it.
13. Each of these parcels gets its own customs form.
14. In June, Dutch customs handled about 730,000 a day.
15. In August, about 300,000.
16. But fewer forms doesn't have to mean fewer purchases.
17. France had tried this already.
18. From March to June, it charged €2 per item.
19. Its customs forms fell from about 500,000 a day to 50,000.
20. In May, France's customs chief told parliament
21. the parcels had mostly been redirected to neighbouring countries.
22. He said he had no figure for how many fewer reached French homes.
23. Since July, every EU country charges,
24. so going through a neighbour no longer helps.
25. He had also predicted the next move: ship in bulk,
26. store the goods in Europe, deliver from there.
27. Perfectly legal, he said.
28. Goods that arrive in bulk are cleared under normal import rules,
29. before anyone buys them.
30. After that, a delivery inside Europe needs no import form.
31. In September, Dutch customs said
32. more and more companies seem to be doing just that.
33. Poland's finance ministry reads its drop differently.
34. It says prices rose by the amount of the charge,
35. and that this is the main reason imports fell.
36. Shein's first report as a listed company came out on Monday.
37. From April to June, before the charge,
38. it sold less in Europe as it raised prices and cut its online advertising.
39. It says a priority now is more stock inside Europe.
40. A second charge of €2 per item is expected in November.
41. And the published figures still don't say how much of the drop is which.