EU to impose 3 EUR tax on Chinese goods under 150 EUR

[Dan S.]

Hey (EU) Chinertowners,

our glorious EU has decided to target low-value parcels (under 150 EUR) with a new tax of 3 EUR (per parcel as it seems), allegedly to combat unfair competition and to reduce waste.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/eu-impose-3-euro-duty-small-e-commerce-parcels-july-2026-2025-12-12/

Thoughts on this? I am curious to see how Aliexpress is going to work this around. Since usually all the stuff I received is "sent from EU address", I wonder if these new rules are going to be imposed on us one way or another.

[kbernstein]

how the EU operates:
1. trump does something
2. call him a senile clueless retard with horrible policies
3. wait 6 months to a year
4. copy his policies

thank you, glorious benevolent oligarchs

btw, this was lobbied by scamazon

[kbernstein]

French shoppers beware: a certain shithole has decided they hate america so much they want to emulate their policies sooner than the EU asked for: 2eur tax starting next sunday. merry christmas amd stock up on consumables ASAP.

[ChinerStevie]

how the EU operates:
1. trump does something
2. call him a senile clueless retard with horrible policies
3. wait 6 months to a year
4. copy his policies

thank you, glorious benevolent oligarchs

btw, this was lobbied by scamazon

This is BS. The 3€ is nothing similar to Trumps taxes.

[TommyGun]

The 3eur is only one problem, that I can overcome. But the biggest issue (at least in my country), is that beside +3eur we will be chargerd for every shipment (that stops by the goverment) additional administration and process costs.

Even now, when checking if the VAT was already paid, my country (in EU) charged such costs 5-10eur. No matter if the VAT was already paid or not. So I had to choose carefully which shipping method to choose from AliExpress. So I choosen shipping that goes into another country in EU, and then send forward to my country. So no additional costs.

I am wondering, how will they do this now. Maybe the same as with already prepaid VAT.

[Dan S.]

The 3eur is only one problem, that I can overcome. But the biggest issue (at least in my country), is that beside +3eur we will be chargerd for every shipment (that stops by the goverment) additional administration and process costs.

Yes, I haven’t mentioned this explicitly, but of course that would also bump up the final fee amount. I wonder how Aliexpress is going to combat this, paying 10 EUR extra for every package is not something I am looking for.

[Serge_K]

it raises interesting supply chain questions.
Are these chinese platforms profitable when they ship a 10 eur order by plane across the globe to your door? if they are, then we as customers really are royally F'ed by the bloat from European warehouses and re-sellers. I have entirely stopped using European websites for anything but tyres, because i find the prices simply insulting.
When you buy stuff on Amazon from another country, you often need to spend 50 eur to get free shipping.
A logical evolution is that going fwd you need to spend 25 (or more), rather than 10, to get free shipping from China.
Temu runs campaigns so that it's cheaper to make 3 small orders than 1 big one. Hardly makes sense.
Intuitively, it doesn't make sense that you can spend 10 eur in china and get your parcel 5-7 days later at your door in europe, when buying something from Europe costs 6 eur in shipping alone and takes 3 days.

[eucalyptus]

I thought this forum would have had more discussion on this topic.

I am not panicking, or i am actually. I have been going on a relentless shopping spree this week, like buying everything and anything, stocking up with cycling clothing (just discovered this phenomena of cycling clothes from Aliexpress.

With the implementation of a 3 EUR fee per product/category it is gonna be absolutely awful..  RIP my titanium screw and other niche items

[Dan S.]

I thought this forum would have had more discussion on this topic.

Also thought this would stir a little larger debate. Well. I still hope Aliexpress will try to offset this somehow, or work around it. Well, let’s see. Last month of "free" shopping boys and girls.

[shaxberd]

There's hardly any (public) information, right? Bar the 3€ figure and the fact that it'll be applied per tariff/product group, everything else still seems tbc:

- Is this a process to be implemented on top of a DDP solution/can AliExpress and other shops take care of this in a streamlined fashion?
- How much (if at all?) can the shipping companies charge for the added handling?
- What impact will this have on shipping times?

I really doubt anyone's properly ready for the process (how's things going in France, they implemented something in March, right?), so I'm half expecting the EU to postpone everything for a few months last-minute 🤷

That said - yeah, I also stocked up on brake pads/discs, bartape, tubeless valves, jerseys... 😅

[ChinerStevie]

To me it seems AliExpress is deducting the Tax directly.
When i attempt to order anything that arrives in July the tax is being added already.

[RiP]

I think the new tax or taxing system on Aliexpress only applies to non "Choice" items...

[Dan S.]

To me it seems AliExpress is deducting the Tax directly.
When i attempt to order anything that arrives in July the tax is being added already.

Seems that way, however, not sure how this will be handled by the customs. Also, they do customs charges estimates, then do a VAT adjustment, but the final amount is higher than those 3 EUR (should be around 3.5 USD). Also not sure if I understand the Customs Charges Estimate. They say if the amount is lower, the difference will be refunded, how they are gonna handle this? Let’s see. I have some cycling clothing arriving in July, but they were ordered prior to this change, so I wonder if Aliexpress will offer a refund of the extra fees.

[jeffrey]

I've noticed prices are gone up quite a bit over the last month (at least that's what I'm seeing from Italy).
E.g. I had a 11-40 cassette in my cart that was listed for about 25€, now it's well over 30.
Has this something to do with the new tax?

[RiP]

The prices have gone up quite a bit in general, at least in less expensive stuff (sub 150 EUR). It seems Aliexpress is taking some "advantages" from this new EU tax system to cash in and earn some extra money. That said, I haven't made any new orders yet, so not sure how it will go in reality, regarding the new tax payment and handling of these packages once they arrive in EU. 

What I can see and already mentioned above, is that for AliExpress Choice items, the advertised price you see for any given product (again, <150 EUR), already includes the new tax. These items should get smooth sailing once they arrive in EU and be delivered without any fuss or inspection. I'm yet to see how this will be applied in fact, given that, for what I understand, the new tax is charged per package relative to the kind of items inside. If a packge has one or more items from the same kind/category, you will only pay one 3 EUR tax. But if a package has items from different kinds/categories, like a bike tool and sunglasses, one has to pay 2 times the tax, 6 EUR, for that one package. I'm not sure how this will be enforced...

Non Choice items (sub 150 EUR), the price that is shown doesn't include the new tax system, but I've done some simulations and I'm yet to understand how AliExpress is applying it or how it will be once a package with those non-Choice items arrives!