A per-package charge would have the obvious loophole that you could put many small packages inside a bigger package, pay only once, and then split it up again to send the contents onward to individual recipients. This is already done to save on postage.
The per-item charge encourages making even bigger bundles exceeding the de minimis threshold, at which point the importer can pay the regular tariff.
So hobbyists will still be able to get small amounts of cheap components, but they will be shipped in bulk and tariffed.
I think it left out an even more important part - this is a temporary change for one year (until 1 July 2028), after which normal customs duties will apply for all products, with no de minimus exception. https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/news/guidance-and-lega... .
Is something bad if it kills a hobby? Like, getting glow fuel now for an R/C plane is pretty hard because shipping requires ground transport and possible hazmat fees, while it used to be you could easily get a bottle from a local hobby store .. which have mostly died off due to people buying things more cheaply online. If that's bad, what should we do?
Or do we realize that hobbies shift, and that perhaps having battery-powered R/C planes is an acceptable substitute, and let the glow plug hobby die out?
And do we apply that more broadly to say that if a 4.60€ USB cable is too much for a hobby, then perhaps switching to another related hobby would be a okay substitute?
Can't compete on price? Make foreign goods more expensive! The same has happened with steel imports.
The article is not mentioning a really important part: the tax is per item category in the package, not per package.
So if you buy an USB cable and a piece of plastic on AliExpress, for 1€ each, the total price would be 1€ + 1€ + 3.60€ + 3.60€ = 9.2€ instead of 2€.
This is ridiculous, and will kill many hobbies. IMHO it's worse than Trump tariffs. A per-parcel charge would have made some sense at least.
A per-package charge would have the obvious loophole that you could put many small packages inside a bigger package, pay only once, and then split it up again to send the contents onward to individual recipients. This is already done to save on postage.
The per-item charge encourages making even bigger bundles exceeding the de minimis threshold, at which point the importer can pay the regular tariff.
So hobbyists will still be able to get small amounts of cheap components, but they will be shipped in bulk and tariffed.
I think it left out an even more important part - this is a temporary change for one year (until 1 July 2028), after which normal customs duties will apply for all products, with no de minimus exception. https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/news/guidance-and-lega... .
It looks like this decision was made in 2015 - https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2025...
Is something bad if it kills a hobby? Like, getting glow fuel now for an R/C plane is pretty hard because shipping requires ground transport and possible hazmat fees, while it used to be you could easily get a bottle from a local hobby store .. which have mostly died off due to people buying things more cheaply online. If that's bad, what should we do?
Or do we realize that hobbies shift, and that perhaps having battery-powered R/C planes is an acceptable substitute, and let the glow plug hobby die out?
And do we apply that more broadly to say that if a 4.60€ USB cable is too much for a hobby, then perhaps switching to another related hobby would be a okay substitute?