Big reversal! The US Postal Service urgently announced that it would resume accepting packages from China

2025 is destined to be a turbulent year.

As US President Trump officially signed an executive order canceling the US tariff exemption policy for packages worth less than US$800, a series of butterfly effects are following.

USPS resumes accepting packages from mainland China and Hong Kong

On Tuesday (February 4th) local time , the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued an announcement, announcing that it would suspend accepting parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong from now on, and the resumption time would be notified separately. The circulation of letters and non-parcel mail will not be affected.

It is understood that the United States Postal Service is one of the largest civilian postal agencies in the United States, handling about 17.7 billion letters and parcels each year, accounting for 40% of the global number. The sudden announcement by the United States Postal Service to stop accepting parcels from China is bound to affect a large number of cross-border sellers.

Some analysts believe that USPS's suspension of package acceptance is more of a symbolic move, because most cross-border packages in the United States are currently transported by private logistics companies such as FedEx and UPS, and the actual share of USPS is not high.

Some industry insiders also pointed out that many small packages in China are currently delivered by USPS. The sudden suspension of package acceptance will undoubtedly have a significant impact on cross-border sellers and logistics companies.

But what no one expected was that less than 24 hours after the USPS issued the announcement to stop accepting packages, it issued another announcement stating that starting from February 5th local time, the United States Postal Service will continue to accept inbound packages from mainland China and Hong Kong Post Offices.

Seeing this, I believe everyone has a puzzled look on their face. This behavior of changing orders every day has caused many sellers to complain that such a big thing can be handled so triflingly, but at the same time, many sellers also said that they can breathe a sigh of relief for a short time .

The most direct trigger for this series of events can be traced back to Trump’s "silly operation" a few days ago.

On February 1, local time , US President Trump signed an executive order, canceling the US "minimum" tariff exemption for small goods "valued at less than US$800" and imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese imports.

On February 3, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a notice in the Federal Register stating that under the new tariff policy, mail packages from China must go through formal customs entry procedures.

Obviously, USPS's sudden announcement to suspend accepting packages from China is precisely to cooperate with this series of customs policy adjustments.

As of now, its main competitors, major international express delivery companies such as FedEx and UPS, have not made any official announcements on how to respond to the new policy and are still clearing customs normally.

A number of logistics companies have announced price increases

A single stone stirs up a thousand waves. After the news that USPS stopped accepting packages came out, the sellers’ group instantly exploded. Although USPS urgently announced yesterday that it would resume accepting packages, some sellers still said that they did not rule out the possibility of it changing its mind again.

A senior seller exclaimed that this year was a "catastrophic start" and said that this would have the greatest impact on small package sellers like them, but we still have to wait and see what the specific impact will be.

Several other industry insiders also said that most sellers and platforms are probably in a wait-and-see state at the moment, but what is certain is that small packages shipped directly by air from the United States may enter a "circuit breaker" mode in the short term, and it is expected that all sellers who use the direct shipping model will be out of business throughout February.

Compared with sellers, logistics companies obviously act more quickly.

Affected by the rising tariff costs, some logistics companies can only pass on the costs further. In the past two days, many companies have issued price adjustment notices:

Yanwen:

Starting from flights departing after 12:00 on February 4, for Yanwen Express tracking, registered mail and other products bound for the United States, a comprehensive tariff of 35% of the declared value of the package will be charged for textiles and clothing, and 25% of the declared value of the package will be charged for other than textiles and clothing. The tariff and prepaid service fee are included. Please declare the product name and declared value truthfully. Yanwen Logistics is not responsible for any customs detention, delayed tax payment and additional fines caused by the revaluation of the US Customs.

Cloud Path:

Yuntu Logistics said: 1. Due to the change in the import declaration mode of the destination country, the customs clearance cost has increased significantly. Starting from 09:00 Beijing time on February 5, Yuntu Logistics will charge a customs declaration fee of 20 yuan per ticket. 2. In addition, for goods from China (including Hong Kong) to the United States that are signed in after 09:00 Beijing time on February 5, Yuntu Logistics will pre-collect a 30% tariff deposit when the package is signed in. The final amount will be based on the actual amount collected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the settlement principle of "more refund and less supplement" will be implemented.

SF Express:

Starting from 12:00 on February 5th, Beijing time , our company will add a customs clearance fee of 20 yuan for each shipment. For shipments from China (including Hong Kong) to the United States that are signed in after 12:00 on February 5th, Beijing time, our company will pre-collect a 30% tariff deposit when the package is signed in, and will eventually "refund the excess and supplement the shortage" based on the actual amount collected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

4PX:

1. Adjustment of service price: Affected by the change of import declaration mode in the destination country, customs clearance fees have increased significantly. From 09:00 on February 5th, Beijing time, our company will add 20 yuan customs clearance fee for each shipment. 2. Prepayment of customs duties: For shipments from China (including Hong Kong) to the United States that are signed in after 09:00 on February 5th, Beijing time, a 30% customs duty deposit will be prepaid when the package is signed in, and the actual amount will be refunded or supplemented.

In addition to sellers and logistics providers, a number of e-commerce platforms will also be affected.

A number of low-price platforms may change their strategies

According to Reuters, Temu, SHEIN and even Amazon's low-price mall will be affected by the adjustment of T86 customs clearance policy.

Industry insiders analyzed that the selling prices of these low-priced platforms in the US market may increase to varying degrees in the future.

“This is obviously a very important thing for companies like Temu and SHEIN , because the ‘minimal’ tariff exemption policy is one of the important reasons why they can offer low prices , ” said Juozas Kaziukenas, CEO of e-commerce data company Marketplace Pulse.

Aaron Rubin, CEO of warehouse management software company ShipHero, said: " The profit margin impact of a 'minimal' tariff exemption might be about 5 percentage points, and e-commerce companies usually only have 10% or 15% profit margins, so this will be a very significant impact. "

In order to reduce the impact of the new tariff policy, Temu has stated that the US site will continue to strengthen the reduction from full-service to half-service. SHEIN has also been strengthening its overseas warehouse layout in Europe and America in the past two years.

However, industry insiders believe that in the short term, the new tariffs will still have a significant negative impact on the profit growth of platforms such as Temu.

USPS

Resume receiving parcels from China