Belgium warned over ‘tsunami’ of packages from China
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The number of low-value parcels arriving in Belgium – a major gateway into the EU – tripled in 2024 to three million a day.
PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
- Belgium faces a surge of small packages, mainly from China, tripling to three million daily in 2024, overwhelming customs.
- The Central Economic Council urges Belgium to reinforce customs and push the EU to adopt measures controlling parcel influx.
- The EU plans a levy on e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu, concerned about unsafe, counterfeit goods entering the bloc.
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BRUSSELS – A Belgian state watchdog has warned that the country is drowning under a flood of small packages from China, as the European Union grapples to control the influx.
Belgium’s Central Economic Council said the number of low-value parcels arriving had tripled in 2024 to three million a day.
“This is an explosive increase, and these packages come mainly from China,” the council said in a report seen on July 10 by AFP.
“This tsunami of packages submerging our country cannot be properly controlled with the current resources available to Customs services and other competent inspection services.”
The council urged the Belgian authorities to bolster the Customs service and to press EU counterparts to speedily adopt measures to help control the influx of parcels.
Belgium is one of the major gateways for such goods into the EU, arriving through the mammoth port of Antwerp and its air freight hub of Liege.
The EU in May said it was preparing to impose a €2 (S$3) flat fee on the billions of low-value packages that flood into the bloc each year, the great majority from China.
The bloc’s executive said e-commerce platforms would be expected to pay the levy per parcel.
In 2024, 4.6 billion such small packages entered the EU – more than 145 per second – with 91 per cent originating in China. The EU expects the numbers to rise.
Platforms, including Chinese-founded Shein and Temu, are suspected by the EU of not doing enough to prevent the sale of products that do not meet European standards.
The EU also fears that many of the products imported into the 27-country bloc are unsafe, counterfeit and potentially even dangerous to consumers. AFP
