29/08/25 DUTY USA : US authorities will not accept items without duties paid

[zgap111]

Just received this from Royal Mail

As you may be aware, on 30 July, the United States Government announced an Executive Order which outlines changes to customs obligations and processes for goods being imported into the USA.

These changes affect all customers and carriers who export goods to the USA and are expected to become effective on 29 August 2025.

Key points of the US Executive Order

• Currently, low-value goods and gifts can enter the USA from other countries ‘duty-free’ because of a ‘de minimis’ duties threshold of US$800. The changes mean goods entering the USA from any country, from 29 August 2025 will be subject to tariffs (duties) payable to US customs.
• For goods shipped via the international postal system, the executive order indicates customs duties will be calculated using the value of the item and the prevailing country-based tariff for the item’s country of origin (origin of manufacture, not origin of shipment).
• The customs duties on items need to be paid to US Customs before those items enter the USA. US authorities will not accept items without duties paid on them.

What does this mean for UK customers exporting goods to the USA?

If you only send personal correspondence to the USA, you are not affected by these changes and can continue to send these items to the USA, without a customs declaration.

If you ship goods to the USA and currently complete a customs declaration, we understand the following changes will apply on 29 August 2025:

• The duty-free threshold (‘de minimis’) of $800 will be removed and replaced by tariffs (duties).
• Senders in the UK will have to calculate, collect (or account for) duties at the point of sale. The duties are payable to US Customs in advance of items entering the USA.
• We understand required duties for UK postal shipments will be based on an item’s value and the country-based tariff (country of manufacture rather than country
  of shipping).

What can customers do now to prepare for these changes?

From 29 August customs duties need to be paid for export items travelling to the USA. To continue to export goods to the USA, you will need to:

• Consider how to calculate the duty/duties payable on each item. You may want to consider doing this by integrating a ‘landed cost calculator’ at your online checkout to calculate ‘landed cost’ (taxes and duties). Landed cost calculators can also collect those taxes and duties.
• Decide how you will account for these duties with your customers (e.g. you can choose to pass the cost of duties on to your customers or absorb it).
• Capture essential electronic product data at item level (much of which is already a requirement) including:
  • o Country of Origin
    o Value of goods/product costs
    o HS codes

How will Royal Mail support customers with these changes?

Royal Mail is working closely with US authorities and international partners to manage the impact of these changes which will affect everyone who sends goods to the USA.

• To enable you to continue to export goods to the USA, Royal Mail will introduce a PDDP (Postal Delivered Duties Paid) service for account customers to use when exporting to the USA.
• This is an extension of Royal Mail PDDP services, which are currently in use to some EU destinations which will allow continued ‘postal clearance’ into the USA with the same labelling, tracking and customer notifications. This will replace existing services and support compliance with the new requirements.
• Our shipping platforms will be updated to capture necessary data to comply with the new requirements (much of which you already provide).
• We will make the codes for the replacement USA PDDP service available to US export customer account/s before the customs changes come into effect. Please see the table below for further information:

Current Royal Mail US export service (parcel or large letter format)	USA PDDP service code	PDDP weight limit
Standard/Untracked	DE6	Up to 2kg
Tracked	MPR	Up to 30kg
Tracked Heavier	MPR	Up to 30kg
Tracked & Signed	MTV	Up to 2kg/5kg printed papers

I knew about the 'de minimis', but not the seller being responsible for charging & paying the DUTY before goods arrive to the USA.

We need to charge the DUTY to all US deliveries, and we have 2 weeks to get this up and running...

Thoughts on how this can be implemented with Sellerdeck?

You may want to consider doing this by integrating a ‘landed cost calculator’ at your online checkout to calculate ‘landed cost’ (taxes and duties). Landed cost calculators can also collect those taxes and duties.

Omg.

We have 2 weeks to the 29th August 2025

Are any of the other platforms ready for this?
- to charge accurately would be a task... but charging a fixed % (eg. if it varies from 0 to 4, charge everything 4%)
- I think Sellerdeck has surcharges per product... maybe setup the DUTY as TAX? and then rename it (for only when Country = US somehow??)

[zgap111]

Flat rate?... omg.

[zgap111]

Maybe setup TAX2 = DUTY?

also there is no Incoterms for DUTY PAID & TAX UNPAID... it's either DAP (DUTY& TAX unpaid) or DDP (DUTY & TAX paid)
for this to work... TAX needs to be charged... and with each state with a different rate?...

but Sellerdeck TAX handling is only on the Country Level and USA TAXES are by State level = can't be done in Sellerdeck (?)

[jeffnurse]

We don't export to the USA, at least not on small sales, but for those that do, this is a nightmare. My sympathies! Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[zgap111]

I know something needs to be done within 3 years with selling to the EU, see:

https://community.sellerdeck.com/for...all-import-b2c

But 2 weeks...

[Goz]

I have opted to no longer sell into the USA. Last orders will be taken on 21st August. On the plus side, I have started selling into EU countries again. Never a dull moment!!

[zgap111]

Saw this new article...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2p17xypgko

We've also suspended sales to the USA

Would be nice to hear from someone at Sellerdeck about this & regarding the future of this platform.