Debate contribution: EU Customs Fee on Small Parcels

Debate contribution by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on 13 January 2026.

MLA

Dr Steve Aiken OBE

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

13 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

EU Customs Fee on Small Parcels

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5316089

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, you will be glad to know that I will talk about the motion and about parcels. Unless Members sit on the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee, they may not be aware of EU regulation 2023/258 and its annex, which is a:

"Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing the Union Customs Code and the European Union Customs Authority, and repealing Regulation (EU) No 952/2013",

along with SEC(2023) 198 and the opinions of the regulatory scrutiny board, the assessment board and the impact assessment. Those regulations are absolutely germane to what we are talking about. They initially set out EU revenue-raising customs proposals in e-commerce that were to apply from 1 March 2028. The changes ruled that the duty relief regulation exemption from customs duty for consignments valued under €150 amended the combined nomenclature, which is to say that it changed the definition of existing goods, packaging requirements, digital registration and coding. That was to allow for non-excise goods to be imported without identifying tariff classification, customs value and origin, which are subject to customs duty. It was to remove the limit of €150 per consignment that was applied to the deemed supplier and related administrative provisions. Members will be aware that our Chancellor, in the recent Budget, had set out to follow suit, with the United Kingdom deciding to remove similar low-value import relief on goods worth £135 or less from March 2029. Members will note that originally the UK date was displaced by one year from the EU customs code proposals after HM Treasury had discussions with the European authorities. In November last year, however, Maroš Šefcovic, a name that may be familiar to some, announced that the European Council, in order to stifle what it saw as low-value imports coming from China, the United Kingdom and the USA, would now apply a fixed customs duty of €3 on small parcels of that value or less that were entering the EU. The date was advanced to 1 July 2026. The EU has called it a "temporary measure", although it is a measure that will not be repealed. The duty of €3 per item:

"will stay in place until the agreement for a permanent solution to eliminate the customs duty relief threshold altogether comes into application. At that point, all goods under €150 will be eligible for customs duty at the normal EU tariffs for individual products."

That, ladies and gentlemen, is EU-speak for, "€3 is the minimum that will be applied to everything" in whatever category and at whatever value the EU agrees to. The so-called temporary levy is distinct from another stealth tax: the proposed so-called handling fee of around €2 for every parcel, which is also planned under the Union Customs Code. When it is fully ratified as part of a customs reform package, that consumer tax will be utilised to fund the EU customs organisation. That is in addition to the €3 customs fee for all parcels that are external to the EU, so an additional cost of €5 for each parcel will be applied to the people of Northern Ireland. Yesterday, we talked about revenue raising. Members will note that, while we do not have accurate data on parcels below the €150 threshold that are sent to Northern Ireland, the number goes into the millions. That means that €3 or €5 of revenue, multiplied by millions of parcels, will go not to the Northern Ireland Executive but to the European Union. Regrettably, even our own Government are unsure of the implications, with HMRC stating in a recent explanatory note:

"it is too early to be able to give specifics about the impacts either applying, or not applying, the EU customs reform package would have on consumers or businesses in NI, or businesses sending goods to NI."

That is HMRC-speak for, "You're going to pay it". There is no clarity on whether all parcels under the threshold value of €150 that do not originate in the EU will be subject to red-lane or green-lane approaches. In particular, GB suppliers have no certainty as to which duty exemptions, if any, will apply or where costs will fall — with the supplier, the distributor or, as is likely in reality, the customer. We are only six months away from implementation. Ironically, His Majesty's Government have stated that the Stormont brake may be the suitable safeguard. I cannot see how any Member who has any regard for the consumers, retailers and distributors of Northern Ireland or the people of Northern Ireland could, in all conscience, not support the motion.

770 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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