Around 12 hours after the United States Postal Service announced it was suspending the receipt of packages from China and Hong Kong, USPS quickly reversed course on the decision.
At around 8 a.m. ET, USPS posted an update on its website. It reads: “Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts.”
The post goes on to say, “the USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.”
Delivery service appears back to normal, at least for the time being.
In its initial suspension, USPS did not specifically mention new 10% tariffs against China as the cause and that notice no longer appears on the website. The tariffs have already sparked a backlash from China, which plans to impose its own levies against US imports. It also plans to investigate some US tech companies for antitrust violations including Google and Nvidia.
The USPS suspension may have been partly prompted by a provision that would close a loophole making parcels worth less than $800 duty-free. Two giant Chinese retailers, Shein and Temu, are targets of that change. As reported by CNBC, China is likely the origin of about half of those under-$800 parcels and those two retailers may be responsible for a significant portion of the 1.3 billion packages sent to the US per year.