EU €3 Duty Moves Goods Inland

Dutch customs counted 46% fewer small parcels arriving from outside the EU in July and August than in the previous six months (Nieuws.nl/ANP). At first glance, Brussels has found a lever that works. But fewer parcels at the border do not necessarily mean fewer goods in Maltese homes. The same phone covers, toys and cheap clothes may simply be entering the EU in larger loads, then moving through European warehouses before reaching the buyer.

What the duty actually does

Until 1 July, parcels worth under €150 could enter the EU duty-free. That exemption has now gone. The new rule charges a flat €3 for each product category inside a shipment (EUR-Lex, European Commission). Buy a phone case and a T-shirt from Temu, and customs adds €6 at the border. On very cheap purchases, that changes the calculation.

The effect is visible across the bloc. Poland’s customs declarations for e-commerce fell 50.1% from June to July (TVN24). France’s finance ministry estimated that small-parcel imports across the EU dropped 30–40%, while Joko transaction data showed Temu volumes down 50% and Shein down only 15% (Le Figaro). That difference matters. Shein already moves bulk stock into warehouses inside Europe, so a duty aimed at individual parcels catches less of its business.

Same goods, bigger boxes

Liège Airport, Belgium’s main hub for Asian e-commerce cargo, shows what is happening beneath the headline figures. Small e-commerce parcels there fell 24% year-on-year and customs declarations dropped 52%. Yet total cargo tonnage rose 4% (AKTUS/CCI Liège-Verviers-Namur). In plain terms: fewer small packets, more weight. The likely shift is from millions of individual parcels to larger consignments that clear customs differently, then feed EU-based fulfilment networks.

Belgian customs data points the same way. Consignments valued above €150 rose 10%, and products were increasingly grouped into bigger loads (RTL Belgium). Shein’s warehouse near Wrocław already serves European fulfilment (Business Insider Polska, Wrocław.pl). Temu is reportedly following that route. The trade has not disappeared. It has changed shape.

Demand has not collapsed either. Polish polling found 79.7% of buyers kept using Chinese platforms after the new charge took effect (MSN Poland). Maltese consumers will recognise the logic. If the item is cheap enough, a new fee changes annoyance more quickly than behaviour.

Who gains, who loses

European retailers are the obvious winners. They already pay full customs duties and must comply with EU product-safety rules. The German Retail Association has argued that Temu and Shein routinely failed to meet the same standards while domestic shops carried the full cost (DW). The €3 duty narrows that gap, although it does not remove it. EU warehouse operators and logistics firms also benefit if platforms move more stock onshore.

Consumers who rely on very cheap goods lose if prices rise or checkout becomes more awkward. But the Commission’s stronger case was about safety, not price. In one EU-wide customs operation, 84% of lab-tested products from small e-commerce parcels were dangerous (DG TAXUD). France’s consumer-protection agency found 46% of roughly 600 marketplace products analysed were dangerous (TF1 Info). Germany’s telecoms regulator found 62.4% of 511 checked Temu products were non-compliant (MDR).

The channel shifted — did the risk?

The duty did what duties usually do. It made one route more expensive, so trade looked for another. If platforms now import bulk into EU warehouses, customs authorities can inspect larger consignments at fewer entry points. That may help. But the safety problem then moves inside the single market, where national market-surveillance bodies — the agencies that check products already being sold — must find, test and remove non-compliant goods under EU product-safety law (Regulation (EU) 2019/1020).

For Malta, this is not a distant customs story. A small market is exposed quickly when unsafe goods move freely across the EU after first entry. A product that clears a warehouse in Poland or Belgium can be on a doorstep in Mosta or Birgu within days.

A separate handling fee, expected around November, has not yet been priced (Douane Nederland). From July 2028, the full common customs tariff will replace the flat €3 rate. Parcel counts answer the easy question: whether one border channel slowed down. The harder question is whether fewer dangerous products are reaching buyers. That evidence is not there yet.