U.S. Shoppers and Businesses Stunned by High UPS and DHL Import Duty Fees as China Tariffs Kick In

As President Donald Trump's new tariffs on Chinese imports kicked into effect, American shoppers and small businesses have been left bewildered by the sudden surge in import duties and processing fees charged by shipping companies like UPS and DHL. Over the past 24 hours, U.S. consumers have reported receiving notices stating they owed between $20 to over $50, with some small business owners forced to temporarily halt sending orders to the U.S. altogether.

"I am now stuck with $30,000 of items I can’t move across the border, the lifeblood of my business," says Leslie Brown, the owner of a Canadian secondhand clothing company that sells to U.S. shoppers on eBay and Poshmark. Brown published a blog post on Medium titled "Donald Trump Will Kill My Business."

U.S. customers who placed orders on shopping websites like the popular Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein have been particularly impacted, even if they made their purchases long before the tariffs were announced. They are now forced to either pay hefty fees—in some cases, more than the value of the items inside—or have their packages sent back.

Chardonnay Love, an artist from Pennsylvania, says she received a text message from DHL on Tuesday explaining that she needed to pay $26.20 in import duties to get a Shein order that already cost her $267.14. The package was shipped from Guangzhou, China, and arrived at a customs office in Cincinnati on Tuesday, according to DHL tracking records she shared with WIRED. They show Love’s order was put on hold for several hours, during which she received the notice asking her to pay the import duties. DHL also noted the package would be returned in five days if she declined to do so.

Love bought the items from Shein back on January 27, days before Trump signed an executive order placing a new 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods sent to the U.S. “If I don't get the items, this would ruin my Valentine’s Day. But being that I already paid shipping and for the items, I'm kind of stubbornly unwilling to pay this weak-ass tariff,” she tells WIRED.

Other people in the U.S. have reported similar experiences. On Facebook, Reddit, and other social media sites, users said they were being charged similar amounts to receive their Shein purchases or those from other retailers. One person shared screenshots of DHL’s breakdown of the costs, which showed that the majority of the fees they were being asked to pay were going toward processing costs, rather than tariffs themselves.

Shein, DHL, UPS, and Amazon did not respond to requests for comment from WIRED. A spokesperson for FedEx said the company was working on helping customers adapt to what they called “substantial changes resulting from the recent tariff announcements.”

Trump’s executive order not only raised tariffs on Chinese goods but also eliminated a long-standing trade exemption that allowed smaller packages to be sent from China to the U.S. duty-free, so long as their value was less than $800. As of Tuesday, shoppers, small businesses, and ecommerce websites now need to account for the 10 percent additional tariff as well as routine import duties applied to different categories of items, plus processing and brokering fees. The abrupt changes have thrown the online shopping industry into chaos as sellers, shipping companies, customs brokers, and consumers scramble to figure out how to absorb the new costs.

Adhering to the new rules is also proving to be a major lift for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the US Postal Service. The latter briefly stopped accepting packages from China and Hong Kong altogether on Tuesday, as it scrambled to manage the deluge of packages from China that were suddenly subjected to more thorough inspections.

CBP published guidance on Wednesday warning the public that packages sent from China to the U.S. must now be submitted for “formal entry,” a process that involves providing extensive documentation, including about the value of the parcel’s contents and comes with higher processing fees.

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For now, it seems like shipping companies are shouldering the bulk of the burden created by the new trade rules, and not all of them are happy about it. In response to Trump’s tariffs, two logistics carriers, DHL Hong Kong and the Hongkong Post, have announced they will no longer accept individual packages shipped to the United States. The owner of a trucking company based in Alberta, Canada, told WIRED that he plans to pay for the duties out-of-pocket first and charge clients afterwards.

The elimination of the $800 duty-free exemption is expected to hit Chinese low-cost shopping platforms like Shein and Temu the hardest, but many smaller ecommerce sellers have also felt the burn. Brands selling mechanical

In conclusion, the new tariffs and import duty fees have significantly impacted the pricing strategies and business models of e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu, as well as the shipping industry. Consumers and small businesses are now facing higher costs and uncertainty, while shipping companies struggle to adapt to the new rules. The long-term effects of these tariffs on the U.S. retail market, particularly for low-cost imports from China, remain to be seen. However, it is clear that both consumers and businesses will need to adjust their strategies to accommodate the new reality.