The European Commission is considering imposing customs duties on cheap goods from Chinese online retailers, including Temu and Shein.
The two companies offer their customers from dresses for 8 euros to smart watches at very low prices. According to current EU regulations, goods bought online from a non-EU country are not subject to customs duties if their value is less than 150 euros.
According to Financial Times sources, this month the European Commission will propose removing the minimum threshold in question of 150 euros, below which there is no import duty. The aim is to limit the flooding of the European market with low-quality items, according to the publication in the financial publication.
Last year alone, 2.3 billion items were imported into the EU below this threshold. Imports via e-commerce have doubled year-on-year, reaching more than 350,000 items in April - or almost two deliveries per EU household on average, EC figures show.
The financial publication recalls that China benefits from subsidized postage, which helps send cheap goods by air.
The new duties will apply to any online retailer that ships goods directly to customers in the EU from third countries, which does not apply to US Amazon, which typically uses intermediaries based in Europe.
The commission already proposed removing the tariff threshold last year, but will now seek to speed up the proposal to counter an influx of cheap imports, an EU official said.
However, another warned that it could be difficult to reach an agreement between EU countries, given that the new regime would increase the workload of already overburdened customs officials.
In just one year, from 2022 to 2023, the number of dangerous products reported by EU countries jumped by more than 50%, reaching 3,400. Cosmetics, toys, electrical appliances and clothes are most often dangerous.
At the beginning of the year, the European toy industry accused Chinese retailers of supplying dangerous goods to children in Europe. Toy Industries of Europe orders 19 different types of toys from Temu. It turns out that none meet EU standards and 18 pose a real risk to children's safety.
Online retailer Temu then explained that the "19 product listings in question are no longer available on our EU website" and added that "product safety is of the utmost importance to us and we have strengthened our control over this product group and related requirements ".