E-commerce: Belgium faces "tsunami" of parcels from China

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Parcels. Credits: Unsplash.

Brussels (Belgium) - A Belgian economic body believes that Belgium is facing a "tsunami" of small parcels sent by major players in Chinese e-commerce. It has stated that Belgium must urge the European Union to accelerate its customs reform, according to an opinion obtained on Thursday by AFP.

The EU has been working for two years on a customs reform that plans to better control the entry into its territory of non-compliant or dangerous goods, against a backdrop of a considerable increase in online commerce. The reform also proposes to remove the exemption from customs duties currently enjoyed by the many shipments with a value not exceeding 150 euros.

According to the Belgian Central Economic Council (CCE), which acts as a whistleblower on socio-economic priorities, these so-called low-value parcels reached three million per day in 2024 in Belgium. This is three times the amount from the previous year.

"This is an explosive increase and these parcels mainly come from China (Alibaba, Shein, Temu, TikTok...)", notes the CCE. "This tsunami of parcels submerging our country cannot be properly controlled with the current resources available to customs services and other competent inspection services of the Ministry of Economy."

Initiative needed

The CCE is calling on the Belgian government to strengthen the resources of its customs services. It also urges the government to "take the initiative" and convince other EU countries of the urgency of better control of imports resulting from e-commerce.

"Waiting for the finalisation (of the ongoing European reform) is not an option", continues this advisory body representing Belgian employers and trade unions. Belgium, with Antwerp, hosts the second largest freight port in Europe after Rotterdam (Netherlands). Liège Airport (east) is also a major air freight platform from China.

The Central Economic Council is worried about unfair competition to the detriment of European economic actors, as well as the consequences for consumer health and the impact on the environment.

"Many products are consumed when they are not compliant with the market, are dangerous to health, are certainly not reusable and most of the time not recyclable", it details. "Many of these products should in fact be directly destroyed by customs when they arrive in our country."

In total, the number of customs declarations for parcels linked to e-commerce has increased from 1,600 per day in 2017 to four million last year (of which three million were low value), according to the Belgian body. As for the future legislation desired in the EU, the twenty-seven member states agreed at the end of June to start negotiations with the European Parliament.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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Temu