Shipping to the US by post: what still gets through, and what does not

Short answer: the exemption that let a parcel worth up to $800 enter the United States duty free ended on 29 August 2025, and it is not coming back. But that is not the change that decides whether you can still ship. US customs built a simplified postal entry process to replace the exemption, and excluded whole categories of goods from it. Those goods now require a formal entry, which means a licensed customs broker. The postal route no longer closes above a value. It closes according to what you sell.

For a year, almost everything written about the United States has said the same thing: the $800 exemption is gone, expect to pay duty on every parcel. That is correct, and it is incomplete.

The rules US customs published on 24 June 2026 do two things. They make the removal indefinite, which settles the question of a reversal. And they set up the regime that replaces the exemption, with a list of exclusions almost nobody has read. That list decides, product by product, whether you can still use the post.

The exemption is not suspended, it is locked three times

Many merchants are waiting for a reversal, on the reasoning that a political decision can be undone the way it was made. Three separate locks have closed, and none depends on the others.

The executive order. Executive Order 14324, signed on 30 July 2025, suspends the exemption for all countries with effect from 29 August 2025.

The regulation. On 24 June 2026, US customs wrote that suspension into their own regulations, indefinitely, in two separate rules: one for the postal network, one for every other mode of transport. They state that they are exercising their own statutory authority, and that if the executive order were amended or withdrawn, their regulatory suspension would remain in force.

The statute. An act of 4 July 2025 removes the legal basis for the exemption from 1 July 2027. On that date there will be nothing left to suspend: the provision itself disappears.

So the question is no longer whether the exemption returns. It is how you ship without it.

The real change: the post closes by category, not by value

To replace the exemption, customs created a simplified postal entry process. It covers shipments up to $2,500 and lets you declare and pay duty without a heavy procedure.

But it does not cover everything. The rule lists the cases where a formal entry is mandatory, meaning a full declaration that in practice requires a licensed customs broker:

The last two rows are the new ones, and they are by far the broadest. The rule itself labels them as new.

Their practical reach is considerable. A merchant selling candles uses the simplified process. The same merchant adding a hand cream to the catalogue moves to formal entry on that line, whatever the order is worth. A $25 order and a $900 order are treated alike.

And the last row holds an irony: claiming an exemption under a free trade agreement takes you out of the simplified process. The tariff benefit is paid for in filing complexity.

The date to put in the calendar

Customs granted a 120 day compliance delay, and only for those two new rows. During that window, goods subject to another agency and goods falling under Chapter 98 or 99 may still use the simplified postal process.

That window closes on 22 October 2026. The other cases already apply.

If your catalogue includes cosmetics, supplements, food or children's products, that is the date that matters to you, not the date the exemption ended.

What the simplified postal process actually requires

For goods that remain eligible, the declaration carries fourteen data elements per shipment, and the rule specifies that it is transmitted by email. The demanding ones for a merchant:

• a description of the goods and their country of manufacture, which is not the country you ship from,
• every applicable US tariff classification, at ten digits. The Harmonized System stops at six digits worldwide and national nomenclatures extend it: the EU Combined Nomenclature runs to eight, the United States to ten,
• the duty rate, the value and the total duty owed,
• the tracking number generated by the foreign postal operator,
• a filer code and a bond number.

Payment goes through the Pay.gov portal, no later than the 7th day of the month following arrival.

The ten digit code causes the most trouble in practice. An approximate classification does not just hold up the parcel, it makes the declared amount wrong. Our guide to HS and HTS codes covers how to get down to the right level of detail.

The bond, and why it stops small merchants

This is the least discussed provision and the most restrictive for a small operation. A shipment of $2,500 or less delivered by the US Postal Service is no longer released from customs custody until a bond has been transmitted, single transaction or continuous, secured by an approved surety or a cash deposit.

There is a second restriction on who may file. The rule reserves it to the owner of the goods, the buyer, or a licensed customs broker. Unlicensed intermediaries who used to provide that service must become brokers or step aside, and customs explicitly expect their clients to move to brokers.

For a merchant, that means the postal route stays technically open but assumes a customs setup few shops have in house.

What this changes for your shop

The sorting happens on your catalogue, not on your revenue. Go through your product lines and flag the ones that fall under a sectoral agency or a tariff measure. Those decide how you ship, not your monthly volume.

Country of origin becomes product data. You need it line by line, and it is not the country the parcel leaves from. If that field is not in your catalogue today, it is the first job.

The choice between the post and a carrier looks different now. DHL, UPS or FedEx fold customs clearance into their service, bond included, and bill you for it. The postal route costs less in carriage but leaves the formalities with you. The real gap between the two is no longer readable on the carriage line alone.

And who pays the duty becomes unavoidable. Without an exemption, there is no longer a parcel on which the question does not arise. That is the subject of our guide to DDP or DAP, worth reading before you advertise a final price.

On the tooling side, ParcelRush generates customs documents alongside the label and suggests a tariff code for each product line. That saves you the re-entry and cuts typing errors. It does not remove your obligations: you remain the declarant and you answer for what you declare.

One caveat, and it matters

Both 24 June 2026 rules are interim final rules open for comment. Customs may amend them once the consultation closes. The dates and thresholds quoted here are those of the published text, and are worth checking before any binding decision.

This article deliberately quotes no duty rates. US tariff levels move with trade policy, and an article that listed them would be wrong within months. The process, by contrast, is fixed by regulation.

Sources

• Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Mail Shipments and New Postal Informal Entry Process, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, interim final rule published 24 June 2026 (CBP Dec. 26-13), for the simplified postal process, the list of mandatory formal entries, the fourteen data elements and the bond.
• Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Merchandise Arriving Through All Modes Other Than the International Postal Network, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 24 June 2026 (CBP Dec. 26-12), for the indefinite suspension outside the postal network and the statutory removal on 1 July 2027 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21, section 70531(b)).
• Executive Order 14324, Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries, signed 30 July 2025, in force from 29 August 2025.