The USPS issued a reminder on Wednesday that Postal Service employees should be prepared to provide tools to customers who are sending packages to the EU. New European Union rules require shippers to provide more detail about the contents of their packages on customs forms.
In a post for employees, the USPS wrote, “Customers should be reminded that broad descriptions of the contents are not acceptable. For example, “men’s cotton dress shirts” is acceptable; “shirts” is not. “Children’s toy doll” would be acceptable; “gift” or “toy” would not.”
The rule applies to packages being sent to all 27 countries of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. It also applies to Norway and Switzerland.
We wrote about the new rules in November which went into effect this month. As we noted, noncompliance could result in fines and penalties as well as delivery delays.
The USPS placed signs at Post Offices around the country explaining the change.
Specifics about what details are required would be a lot more helpful than examples.
“For example, “men’s cotton dress shirts” is acceptable; “shirts” is not. “Children’s toy doll” would be acceptable; “gift” or “toy” would not.””
That’s very helpful if I’m sending “men’s cotton dress shirts” or a “children’s toy doll,” but pretty useless for anything else.
Based on the first example, it would seem the material is required, but not based on the second example. Men’s or children’s? Am I to assume this means I must enter the target age demographic, and also the target gender demographic, but only gender for adults?
Like honestly, what is it they actually are requiring?
So glad I stopped shipping internationally years ago!
Damn socialists! Always wanting to tax poor people over trinkets.