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Following France and Belgium, the Netherlands will also impose a levy on e-commerce parcels imported from outside the European Union. An average order would become around 6 euros more expensive.
2 billion euros per year
From January 1, Dutch customs will impose a levy – officially termed a “handling fee” of 2 euros per product line – on parcels from outside the EU with a value of up to 150 euros. Until now, these have been exempt from customs duties. Because the average package contains three different products, this means an average cost increase of 6 euros per order, according to the NOS, which was able to view the bill.
With the current volume of parcels entering the Netherlands, this would generate 2 billion euros per year. After all, this amounts to one million items per day, mainly from Chinese online stores such as AliExpress, Temu, and Shein. The Belgian government also recently decided to introduce a 2 euros parcel tax for small orders, as did France. These countries do not want to wait for a joint European tax, which is not likely to come into effect until November 1 next year. In the meantime, the Netherlands wants to avoid the import of Chinese parcels moving from Belgium to Rotterdam and Schiphol.
