BERLIN: The postal services of Germany and France on Friday announced a raft of restrictions on package deliveries to the United States due to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

DHL, which owns the Deutsche Post service, said that from Saturday it would “temporarily suspend” its standard category of US package delivery, the preferred option for many small businesses.

“The reason for the restrictions, which we expect to be temporary, are new processes for postal delivery which have been put in place by the US authorities,” DHL said in a statement.

“Important questions have not yet been answered, including who will have to pay the tariffs and how,” it added.

France’s La Poste said it would suspend from Monday package deliveries to the United States, except for gifts sent by individuals with a value of less than 100 euros.

It said the new rules had been issued only on Aug 15, leaving European postal services with an extremely limited timeframe to get prepared.

“Moreover, their related documentation still requires further clarification,” La Poste added in a statement.

The French service sends 1.6 million packages on average to the United States every year, 80 per cent from businesses and 20pc from individuals.

Extra checks

Other European postal services, including in Belgium, Austria and Denmark, have already taken similar measures.

DHL said a more expensive “express” service for packages weighing up to 70 kilograms would still be available.

Individual customers will also still be able to send items as presents with a maximum value of 86 euros, but DHL warned that these would be subject to extra checks to prevent the service being used for commercial goods.

The Trump administration said late last monththat as of Aug 29 it would abolish a tax exemption on small packages entering the US.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2025