By Matthias Inverardi
DUESSELDORF, May 22 (Reuters) – DHL, FedEx and UPS urged European Union finance ministers to phase in new duty rules on low-value packages on Friday, warning of supply chain bottlenecks and an impact on the availability of some medical supplies.
The rules are part of efforts to crack down on cheap Chinese e-commerce imports such as from online retailers Shein and Temu.
In a letter dated May 22 seen by Reuters, the three companies said the EU should proceed with a €3 flat-rate duty from July 1, but defer “more complex and unresolved elements until they are legally certain and operationally viable”.
They wrote that the new data requirements and other changes required by the new rules resulted in a level of complexity that cannot realistically be implemented by the July 1 deadline.
Mike Parra, CEO of DHL Express Europe, Wouter Roels, president of FedEx Europe, and Daniel Carrera, president of UPS EMEA, said in the letter they foresaw a “real risk” of shipments being held up at EU borders “without a stable and workable legal framework”.
“Such disruption could affect medical supply availability, delay industrial production, and create bottlenecks across European supply chains, all risks that are particularly significant in the current geopolitical context,” they wrote.
(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi, writing by Tom Sims, Editing by Louise Heavens and Alexander Smith)
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