4 ms·

I live in Switzerland and Swiss post, which is the state owned postal service, does not ship to the US anymore. Here is the official link: https://www.post.ch

by seviu 1y ago

I live in Switzerland and Swiss post, which is the state owned postal service, does not ship to the US anymore. Here is the official link: https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2025/us-customs-regulations-hamper-the-shipping-of-goods-to-the-usa https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2025/us... Pretty crazy if you ask me

timr 1y ago
> I live in Switzerland and Swiss post, which is the state owned postal service, does not ship to the US anymore. That is not what the link says. It says that goods consignments are not accepted -- which is not at all the same thing as "does not ship to the US anymore". The link explicitly says that they're continuing to ship letters, will continue to ship goods via another service, and (I can only presume) will continue to accept personal packages, since those aren't affected at all by these tariff changes. The discussion on this topic on HN is far more heat than light.
- pj_mukh 1y ago
  Wait, ARE “personal packages” exempt? Doesn’t say that in the press release. If I buy a Swiss watch (<$800) I’ll have to use DHL or UPS (though AFAIK, they also use national post in places) so I’m SOL. But if my Swiss friend mails me a watch they can use Swiss Post still? Unclear.
  - timr 1y ago
    Nothing has changed wrt the personal exemption. Imports under $800 are exempt (i.e. you always had to pay tariffs on an expensive watch). I don't know how many commenters here actually realize it, but the de minimis exemption changes only apply to commercial import, which is how Temu and others could send a $10 piece of crap from China to your doorstep. I don't know if the Swiss post office has realized this, but it's true. Edit: one bit of nuance (see my comment downthread with some of the actual laws and the EO) is that if you buy a watch from Chrono24 or something then it's more like the Temu use-case, and I think the personal exemption probably doesn't apply? But if you go to Switzerland and pick up a $799 watch and post it back or carry it on a plane, then there's no problem.
    - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
      > how Temu and others could send a $10 piece of crap from China to your doorstep. The postal union treaty also externalized shipping costs.
    - lxgr 1y ago
      > the de minimis exemption changes only apply to commercial import What exactly distinguishes a commercial import from a personal gift? How on Earth would the USPS adjudicate the difference?
      - timr 1y ago
        Well, I'm not a customs agent, but I'd imagine they do it in the same way they adjudicate anything else: inspection. Some things get through by chance, of course, but not at a rate you'd want to rely on if you're a business. In particular, if I walk into a random post office and send a one-off shipment internationally, the paperwork, origin, packaging, manifest, etc. is vastly different than what, say, Temu was doing to ship a $10 widget to US consumers at scale. The rule you're talking about is not new, so presumably they've figured it out.
        lxgr 1y ago
        The $100 rule might not be new, but given that it was by far exceeded by the $800 de minimis exemption until now, it just didn’t matter.
        timr 1y ago
        This has nothing to do with the value threshold. US customs had to know the difference between personal packages and commercial packages before the change. You asked me what distinguishes a commercial package from a personal gift.
        lxgr 1y ago
        > US customs had to know the difference between personal packages and commercial packages before the change. Presumably for things like import restrictions (I could imagine somebody sending homemade cookies is treated differently than a large-scale food importer), but not for a decision on whether to charge or not levy duties though, right?
  - throwway120385 1y ago
    There's a tariff code and ways of labeling for US customs that should get you through customs with that. Customs is more about regulating commerce and secondarily about preventing contraband from getting through. Sending someone a gift Swiss Watch is probably still possible as long as you don't just YOLO it straight into the mail like it's going to a domestic address.
  - MandieD 1y ago
    Postal services (including the one I'm in) are going with the $100 gift limit, not the previous $800 de minimus.
    - timr 1y ago
      If so, they're wrong.
      - fzeroracer 1y ago
        If you're saying post offices around the world are wrong, it might be time to reevaluate your own statement for truthiness. There's multiple countries that are now suspending shipments over $100 to the US. So either there is a huge fuckup in communications from the US to every other country or there's a fuckup in the process itself.
        timr 1y ago
        > If you're saying post offices around the world are wrong, it might be time to reevaluate your own statement for truthiness. ...or you could read the actual changes? Accusing people of lying is not cool when you clearly haven't even read the source material. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/suspending-duty-free-de-minimis-treatment-for-all-countries/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/susp... Here's a summary by a law firm: https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/united-states-suspend-customs-de-minimis-entry-most-shipments-august-29-2025 https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/united-states-suspen... Specifically: > The executive order declares that “[t]he duty-free de minimis exemption provided under 19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C) shall no longer apply to any shipment of articles not covered by 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b) [enumerating narrow exceptions, such as for donations, informational materials and transactions ordinarily incident to travel] regardless of value, country of origin, mode of transportation, or method of entry.” 50 USC 1702(b)(4) lays it out explicitly: > (4) any transactions ordinarily incident to travel to or from any country, including importation of accompanied baggage for personal use, maintenance within any country including payment of living expenses and acquisition of goods or services for personal use, and arrangement or facilitation of such travel including nonscheduled air, sea, or land voyages. You don't need to go into this much detail, of course -- you could just Google it or ask an LLM -- Google's AI summary currently returns the correct answer. https://www.google.com/search?q=does+trump+de+minimis+tariff+changes+affect+personal+goods+travel https://www.google.com/search?q=does+trump+de+minimis+tariff...
tcumulus 1y ago
Same here in Belgium, and many other European countries.
- wila 1y ago
  Same in the Netherlands too.
prawn 1y ago
Same in Australia now, I believe.

by seviu 1y ago

timr 1y ago

> I live in Switzerland and Swiss post, which is the state owned postal service, does not ship to the US anymore. That is not what the link says. It says that goods consignments are not accepted -- which is not at all the same thing as "does not ship to the US anymore". The link explicitly says that they're continuing to ship letters, will continue to ship goods via another service, and (I can only presume) will continue to accept personal packages, since those aren't affected at all by these tariff changes. The discussion on this topic on HN is far more heat than light.

pj_mukh 1y ago
Wait, ARE “personal packages” exempt? Doesn’t say that in the press release. If I buy a Swiss watch (<$800) I’ll have to use DHL or UPS (though AFAIK, they also use national post in places) so I’m SOL. But if my Swiss friend mails me a watch they can use Swiss Post still? Unclear.
- timr 1y ago
  Nothing has changed wrt the personal exemption. Imports under $800 are exempt (i.e. you always had to pay tariffs on an expensive watch). I don't know how many commenters here actually realize it, but the de minimis exemption changes only apply to commercial import, which is how Temu and others could send a $10 piece of crap from China to your doorstep. I don't know if the Swiss post office has realized this, but it's true. Edit: one bit of nuance (see my comment downthread with some of the actual laws and the EO) is that if you buy a watch from Chrono24 or something then it's more like the Temu use-case, and I think the personal exemption probably doesn't apply? But if you go to Switzerland and pick up a $799 watch and post it back or carry it on a plane, then there's no problem.
  - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
    > how Temu and others could send a $10 piece of crap from China to your doorstep. The postal union treaty also externalized shipping costs.
  - lxgr 1y ago
    > the de minimis exemption changes only apply to commercial import What exactly distinguishes a commercial import from a personal gift? How on Earth would the USPS adjudicate the difference?
    - timr 1y ago
      Well, I'm not a customs agent, but I'd imagine they do it in the same way they adjudicate anything else: inspection. Some things get through by chance, of course, but not at a rate you'd want to rely on if you're a business. In particular, if I walk into a random post office and send a one-off shipment internationally, the paperwork, origin, packaging, manifest, etc. is vastly different than what, say, Temu was doing to ship a $10 widget to US consumers at scale. The rule you're talking about is not new, so presumably they've figured it out.
      - lxgr 1y ago
        The $100 rule might not be new, but given that it was by far exceeded by the $800 de minimis exemption until now, it just didn’t matter.
        timr 1y ago
        This has nothing to do with the value threshold. US customs had to know the difference between personal packages and commercial packages before the change. You asked me what distinguishes a commercial package from a personal gift.
        lxgr 1y ago
        > US customs had to know the difference between personal packages and commercial packages before the change. Presumably for things like import restrictions (I could imagine somebody sending homemade cookies is treated differently than a large-scale food importer), but not for a decision on whether to charge or not levy duties though, right?
- throwway120385 1y ago
  There's a tariff code and ways of labeling for US customs that should get you through customs with that. Customs is more about regulating commerce and secondarily about preventing contraband from getting through. Sending someone a gift Swiss Watch is probably still possible as long as you don't just YOLO it straight into the mail like it's going to a domestic address.
- MandieD 1y ago
  Postal services (including the one I'm in) are going with the $100 gift limit, not the previous $800 de minimus.
  - timr 1y ago
    If so, they're wrong.
    - fzeroracer 1y ago
      If you're saying post offices around the world are wrong, it might be time to reevaluate your own statement for truthiness. There's multiple countries that are now suspending shipments over $100 to the US. So either there is a huge fuckup in communications from the US to every other country or there's a fuckup in the process itself.
      - timr 1y ago
        > If you're saying post offices around the world are wrong, it might be time to reevaluate your own statement for truthiness. ...or you could read the actual changes? Accusing people of lying is not cool when you clearly haven't even read the source material. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/suspending-duty-free-de-minimis-treatment-for-all-countries/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/susp... Here's a summary by a law firm: https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/united-states-suspend-customs-de-minimis-entry-most-shipments-august-29-2025 https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/united-states-suspen... Specifically: > The executive order declares that “[t]he duty-free de minimis exemption provided under 19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C) shall no longer apply to any shipment of articles not covered by 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b) [enumerating narrow exceptions, such as for donations, informational materials and transactions ordinarily incident to travel] regardless of value, country of origin, mode of transportation, or method of entry.” 50 USC 1702(b)(4) lays it out explicitly: > (4) any transactions ordinarily incident to travel to or from any country, including importation of accompanied baggage for personal use, maintenance within any country including payment of living expenses and acquisition of goods or services for personal use, and arrangement or facilitation of such travel including nonscheduled air, sea, or land voyages. You don't need to go into this much detail, of course -- you could just Google it or ask an LLM -- Google's AI summary currently returns the correct answer. https://www.google.com/search?q=does+trump+de+minimis+tariff+changes+affect+personal+goods+travel https://www.google.com/search?q=does+trump+de+minimis+tariff...

tcumulus 1y ago

Same here in Belgium, and many other European countries.

wila 1y ago
Same in the Netherlands too.

prawn 1y ago

Same in Australia now, I believe.