The European Union has voted to do away with its de minimis exemptions for low-value parcels as soon as 2026, as the bloc looks to manage the flood of duty-free shipments coming from Chinese retailers like Shein and Temu.

The EU had initially agreed in 2023 to end its duty-free exemptions for shipments worth less than €150 ($175) by 2028. But on November 13, EU finance ministers voted to move the timeline up two years, in the face of repeated calls from European retailers to address concerns over the de minimis rule "without delay," European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic told Reuters.

De minimis policies across the globe have allowed Shein, Temu and others to ship products directly from Chinese factories to consumers at prices well below market value. In 2024, the number of low-value e-commerce packages shipped into the EU doubled from the previous year to 4.6 billion, with more than 90% of those coming straight from China. In a written statement, EU lawmaker Dirk Gotink estimated that Europe has already received more parcels in 2025 than it did all of last year. 

This follows a similar move from the U.S. to end its own de minimis rule — which had exempted shipments worth less than $800 from duties — on August 29. At the time, President Trump spoke of how the loophole had allowed Chinese retailers to evade tariffs and funnel unsafe products and synthetic opioids into the country.