DHL Resumes Package Shipments for Business Customers to the USA

The postal and parcel division of the DHL Group, Post & Paket Deutschland, is one of the first postal and parcel service providers worldwide to resume postal goods shipments from Germany to the USA for business customers. After just four weeks, during which Deutsche Post/DHL and many other postal service providers had to suspend this type of goods shipment to the USA due to new legal regulations, Germany’s largest postal and parcel service will again enable companies to use both DHL Express and DHL Paket International for shipments to the USA starting September 25.

(Bonn) This is made possible by the “Postal Delivered Duty Paid” (PDDP) service, which DHL has previously only offered for goods shipments to Norway, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, and which is now being extended to the USA. Furthermore, DHL had to completely restructure the entire process of data and customs collection as well as the payment of applicable customs duties in a very short time to comply with the new customs regulations according to the Executive Order “Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for all Countries” from the US government.

What Changes for Business Customers

Business customers who wish to send their goods valued up to and including 800 US dollars via postal service to the USA must now pay attention to three things: 1) Goods valued up to and including 800 USD have been subject to customs duties since August 29. The customs exemption limit of 100 USD applies only to private gifts – not to commercial shippers. 2) The use of the PDDP service is mandatory for postal goods shipments via DHL, where the sender assumes all import duties for their recipient customers in advance. 3) They must provide complete and accurate customs data, especially the goods’ customs tariff number and the country of origin for each individual item.

The price for the PDDP service to the USA is 2 euros per shipment. Additionally, the fees of the service provider – the so-called “Qualified Party” – and the customs duties themselves will be passed on to the business customers without markup. The “ad valorem” method will be used for calculating customs duties. DHL points out that the actual package prices to the USA remain stable. The additional costs that business customers will incur for postal shipments to the USA from now on are solely based on external factors that DHL cannot control and has no influence over.

The new shipping process is not applicable for private customers. Packages from private individuals to private individuals with a value up to 100 USD, declared as “gift”, are not affected by the new regulations in the USA. However, these shipments will be monitored even more closely than before to prevent the misuse of private gift shipments for commercial goods. There are also no changes for the shipment of documents in letters. The shipment of goods via DHL Express and the commercial import of goods into the USA under the currently applicable customs rates remains possible.

Applies Only to DHL Paket Products

The new shipping modalities for postal goods shipments from Germany to the USA only affect products of the DHL Paket brand. Products from other DHL divisions, such as DHL Express or DHL eCommerce, are not affected.

Photo: © DHL