August 21, 2025
If you ship to the United States, there’s an important change to duty-free thresholds that could affect your day-to-day mailing and shipping operations.
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The US trade tariffs have been all over the news since April this year and have caused uncertainty in international trade. Then, there were big changes in August 2025. If your business involves importing any products into America, you might be concerned about the impact this could have on your bottom line. Luckily, UK Postbox may be able to help you minimise the effects of the US customs tariffs on your business, or avoid the US trade tariffs completely.
If your business exports products to America, it is likely you will be impacted. The situation is changing by the hour, so we suggest keeping a close eye on the news and the US International Trade Commission's website for the latest news
In short, if your products are impacted by the tariffs, you (or your customer) will need to pay more duty on the import. At the time of writing, this is up to 125% on products from China to America, for example. It’s easy to see the impact this could have on a business, with prices rising significantly and the potential loss of revenue because of this.
As outlined in our dedicated blog in August, we can summarise that:
Before 29 August, items valued at $800 or less (the ‘de minimis’ duties threshold) were able to be sent to the USA without import duties.
Now, tariffs apply to all low-value items. The customs duties, for the UK specifically, are 10% on UK-origin goods and 15% on EU-origin goods.
Advice: Review US order costs and consider how to calculate the duty/duties payable on each item. Above all, communicate with customers. Send them this blog if you want to!
For commercial US-bound parcels, Royal Mail now applies a 50p handling fee. This is because, upon arrival overseas, any VAT and duties on the parcel are calculated by the overseas authority and then billed to Royal Mail.
Advice: Consider working the handling fee into your pricing and offer larger orders.
We can help with consolidating parcels, repackaging, and providing transparent duties and customs documentation.
Advice: UK Postbox customers should speak to our forwarding team about the best way to handle your parcel shipping. If you'd like to start using UK Postbox for your US-shipping needs please contact us.
How to prepare for the US trade tariff changes
We have more guidance in our blog posted on 21st August: Exporting to the US? Be aware of the duty-free threshold changes
Dropshipping is a fantastic business model, and can reliably generate a good income. Many dropshippers choose to ship products directly from China to customers around the world, including in the United States. For those customers, trade tariffs of 125% would now apply
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Using UK Postbox for your fulfilment means you’d be shipping products from our UK processing centre. This means any products arriving in the US from your business (shipped from our address) would have duty due at the UK to US tariff rate. This is currently significantly lower than the all encompassing 125% rate implemented on Chinese exports to the states
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As UK Postbox is a Shopify partner, it’s even easier to implement this as our online platform can connect with your Shopify store. We’re happy to help you get this set up properly. Just reach out to our friendly team.
Dropshipping isn’t for everyone, and we are also set up to facilitate full stock management and fulfilment. UK Postbox can provide a complete fulfilment service for your business, holding stock and despatching as required. We can also handle returns, letting you focus on other areas of your business.
When it comes to US Tariffs, your business can benefit from shipping directly from our UK address, meaning the only duty liability will be that from the UK to the US. As the sender, you will make the declaration when sending your goods. This gives you full control over your sent products.
When shipping products from high tariff countries like China into America via our UK address, we can remove any packaging and labelling provided at the source. This includes Chinese labels, customs declarations and invoices. We can then repackage your products in plain packaging, print and include your customs information for onward shipping, and ship with a postal service that suits your requirements.
If you’re looking to buy or import products from China, you can use our parcel forwarding service to ship them to our UK addresses first, before forwarding them to America. Known as ‘Shop & Ship’, this service can include parcel consolidation, packaging removal, and plain packing. As the sender, you will be responsible for completing any required customs declarations yourself.
UK Postbox is uniquely prepared to help you and your business minimise the impact of the US trade tariffs. Whether you are shopping for yourself and could benefit from our Shop & Ship service, or your business trades across the world, UK Postbox will have a service suitable for your needs.
If you ship to the United States, there’s an important change to duty-free thresholds that could affect your day-to-day mailing and shipping operations.
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