A customs duty of €3 will apply to every item in a package ordered from third countries when it arrives in Estonia, starting next month.
From 1 July, all small consignments arriving from third countries valued at less than €150 will be subject to customs duty. Parcels arriving in June will still be handled under the existing rules.
“So if a person is still considering today whether to order or not, and whether the goods will arrive before 1 July or not, then most likely they will not,” said Ursula Riimaa, Deputy Director General of the Tax and Customs Board.
A customs duty of €3 must be paid for a single item, but if several items are ordered in one shipment, the charge will apply multiple times.
“This means that if my shipment contains two pairs of socks, which are one and the same product item, then €3 will be added to that shipment. But if my package contains three different goods, for example socks, a dress and a blouse, then this €3 charge will apply to each item in the shipment,” Riimaa explained.
The volume of small consignments arriving from third countries has grown exponentially in recent years. Last year, nearly 2.5 million parcels arrived in Estonia. This year, an average of around 400,000 small consignments arrives every month.
“About 50 to 80 percent of them do not comply with product safety requirements or infringe intellectual property requirements. What is intended with this tax is, on the one hand, to encourage people to think more carefully about whether they actually need the product, in order to avoid impulse purchases. Secondly, it is intended to create equal competitive conditions for our own businesses, which have to comply with a great many European Union standards that are not required of products from third countries,” said Riimaa.
Four truckloads of goods arrived at Omniva’s sorting centre on Tuesday, primarily small consignments from China, ERR’s evening news show “Aktuaalne kaamera” reported.
“About one third of the volume comes from outside the European Union and the overwhelming majority of that is from China, mainly Temu, Aliexpress and Shein. The volume in the Baltics is 30–35 million parcels. At the moment, we can see a certain increase in volumes, but whether this is specifically related to the customs change, I cannot say,” said Omniva CEO Martti Kuldma.
From November 1, a customs handling fee will also be added when ordering small consignments from third countries.
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