As of today, CTT (Correios de Portugal, the country’s privately-owned postal service) has suspended most of its postal deliveries to the United States of America.
The move follows similar decisions by postal services around the world – and the reason lies in the decision by US president Donald Trump to end the customs duty exemption regime (DeMinimis) on imported goods on Friday (August 29).
European postal services stress that the “details of the new requirements are not yet fully clarified by US customs authorities and will require operational adjustments by postal companies worldwide”.
In a statement, CTT says: “This change directly affects international postal flows and requires shippers to pay customs duties before shipping to the US”.
The suspension will last “as long as strictly necessary” for the implementation of changes underway, says the company – stressing that it will affect “all postal products, universal service parcels and international express parcels”.
Excluded, however, is “mail destined for the US containing only ‘documents’ and ‘gifts between individuals worth less than 100 US dollars (roughly €86).
Also ‘still being accepted’ are shipments containing goods “using the International Premium product for CTT Expresso contract customers, which allows shipments of up to 30 kg with collection and delivery at the most convenient location, with the fees borne by the recipients”.
CTT assures that this suspension will last ‘as long as strictly necessary’ for the implementation of the changes underway.
This new measure introduced by the Trump regime also covers other territories under US administration, namely Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
And what no news outlet in Portugal seems to be explaining so far is that the cancellation of this ‘DeMinimis’ regime could basically make doubling the cost of sending regular packages (see image above).
Source material: SIC Notícias/ CTT
