Australia’s postal service has announced it will immediately partially suspend deliveries to the U.S. and its territories, after the Trump administration ended duty-free treatment for packages.
The decision was in response to “significant changes” by the U.S. government and was in line with measures taken by other postal operators around the world, Australia Post said in a statement
The service was “disappointed” to have to take the action, Australia Post Executive General Manager, Parcel, Post & eCommerce Services Gary Starr said. The temporary suspension was “necessary to allow us to develop and implement a workable solution for our customers,” he added.
The changes would impact services including Business Contract, MyPost Business and Retail consumers, Australia Post said. Letters, documents and gifts under the value of $100 would be unaffected.
In July, President Donald Trump decided to end the so-called de minimis exemption from August 29 which has applied to more than 4 million parcels flowing through the U.S. each day. In response, postal services in a number of countries including Japan, Switzerland and New Zealand announced in recent days they would be temporarily suspending parcel deliveries to the U.S.
