Tariff rules for small parcels were rewritten twice in eighteen months, and a lot of guides still quote the old ones. The EU closed its €150 duty relief on 2026-07-01. The United States suspended the $800 Section 321 exemption — China and Hong Kong first, on 2025-05-02, then every other origin on 2025-08-29 — and CBP made that suspension indefinite on 2026-06-24. Below is what each of the five destinations actually charges now, with the arithmetic rather than the adjectives. Where we could not confirm something on an official page, we say so instead of guessing. Rules last checked 2026-10-03; confirm before you price anything.
EU: €150 de minimis abolished (2026-07-01)
Two different changes get conflated here, so keep them apart. Import VAT has been charged on every parcel entering the EU since 2021-07-01 — that part was not new in 2026. What ended on 2026-07-01 was the €150 duty relief. Since then a temporary flat €3 customs duty applies per item, during a two-year transition, on top of the ordinary duty for the CN code and VAT at the destination member state’s rate, and a further per-parcel handling fee was announced for late 2026. On €500 of cotton T-shirts that works out at roughly €25 of duty, €3 per item, and about €100 of VAT, before any broker or handling charge. Duty rates swing far more by product than by country, so look up your own CN code rather than trusting any average. The structural point that catches people out: somebody has to act as importer of record, and that party must be established in the EU — settle which side carries that role before you book the line.
US: the $800 exemption is suspended — not just tightening
If your mental model is that anything under $800 enters the US duty-free, it is out of date. De minimis was suspended for Chinese and Hong Kong goods on 2025-05-02, extended to every other origin on 2025-08-29, and written into standing CBP rules on 2026-06-24 (19 CFR 10.151 for non-postal arrivals, 145.31 for postal). The $800 figure remains in the statute until it is repealed on 2027-07-01, but it no longer buys an exemption. In practice a parcel below that value now pays the ordinary stack: duty at the applicable HTS rate, Section 301 where it attaches to goods of Chinese origin, and the Merchandise Processing Fee at 0.3464% of entered value subject to a per-entry floor and ceiling — and it needs an entry of some kind. One layer came off rather than on: the Supreme Court held on 2026-02-20 that IEEPA does not authorise tariffs, so IEEPA-based duties stopped applying, while Section 301, Section 232 and any outstanding AD/CVD order did not change. The practical consequence for sourcing is that the sub-$800 test order is no longer a cheap experiment, and "under $800 from China" no longer means free of Section 301.
UK: £135 low-value rule (post-Brexit independent)
After Brexit, the UK runs its own VAT rules. Since 2021-01-01, all imported goods — regardless of value — pay VAT. The £135 threshold is the point at which VAT is collected AT THE POINT OF SALE (by the marketplace/platform) rather than at the border. Below £135 you still pay VAT but the seller is forced to collect it; above £135 the buyer pays at the border plus a £12 Royal Mail handling fee. Chinese-origin shipments into the UK are also subject to UK Global Tariff (0% on most clothing, 4.7% on toys).
Canada: $20 CAD low-value (duty-free but GST still applies)
Canada Post handles personal imports under $20 CAD duty-free — but GST (5%) and any applicable PST/HST (5–10% depending on province) still applies on the value + shipping. The supplier of record (you or your agent) must remit these. Above $20 CAD, duties apply per the Canada Border Services Agency tariff (typically 0–18%) plus the same GST/PST. Order $100 CAD of clothing from 1688 → expect $5 GST + $5 PST (Ontario) + ~$5 duty = ~$15 in total fees,.
Australia: $1000 AUD threshold (GST on all imported goods)
Since 2018-07-01, Australia charges 10% GST on all imported goods regardless of value — there is no de minimis for GST. The $1000 AUD threshold is for duty: below $1000, no customs duty applies for most personal imports (only GST); above $1000, full customs duty applies per the Australian Customs Tariff (0–10% on most consumer goods) plus GST. The supplier of record (your agent or you) must register for GST if your annual sales exceed $75,000 AUD.
How to choose a sourcing agent for tariff-heavy destinations
We used to publish a table here mapping each destination to a recommended agent, and we took it down. Every row rested on a claim about how an agent handles clearance internally — who it names as importer of record, whether a given route is duty-prepaid — and none of it could be checked against anything those agents actually publish. That is the same standard that makes us leave CSSBuy’s 1688 service fee unconfirmed, and it cuts here too. What genuinely differs between agents is the line list, and you can read that yourself for your own parcel: duty-prepaid lines fold estimated import VAT and duty into the freight you pay at booking, while everything else hands clearance to a broker at the destination, which costs time and usually a handling fee. Which lines exist depends on both the agent and where you are shipping. Compare the live line list for your actual parcel instead of trusting a fixed ranking — ours very much included.
FAQ
Which country has the most friendly tariff for $500 1688 orders?
Not the United States, which is the answer you will find in anything written before 2025. With the $800 exemption suspended, a $500 US-bound parcel is assessed duty like any other import, and splitting it across several same-day packages to stay under a threshold buys nothing. On today’s rules the gentler destinations for small parcels are Australia — no duty below A$1,000, GST only — and Canada once you are past its very low C$20 line, where duty on most consumer goods runs 0 to 18%. The EU is now the strictest combination: VAT on everything since 2021, plus €3 per item since mid-2026. Rates move more with the product code than with the destination, so check your own HTS or CN code rather than a country average.
Is there still any $800 duty-free allowance for US-bound parcels?
In practice, no. Section 321 still sets an $800 per person per day ceiling and that text survives until it is repealed on 2027-07-01, but the exemption itself has been suspended since 2025 and most recently made indefinite in CBP rules published 2026-06-24. Origin stopped being the deciding factor along the way: the suspension started with China and Hong Kong on 2025-05-02 and went worldwide on 2025-08-29. The one habit worth keeping, whatever your forwarder tells you, is checking CBP’s current position directly — this has moved four times in eighteen months and there is no reason to believe it has finished moving.
Do I need an EIN or importer bond to ship from 1688 to the US?
Plan as though you do. With the exemption suspended, low-value shipments need a formal or informal entry, and informal entries outside the postal channel generally require a customs bond. Whether you personally need an EIN comes down to who is the importer of record: if your sourcing agent is the IOR filing on its own continuous bond, you do not; if you are the IOR, you need an EIN — or a US entity — and a continuous bond sized to roughly 10% of your annual duty bill. Which of those each of the five actually offers is a question to put to them directly, because it turns on their own registration and location, and we have no public page to cite for any of them.
What is the IOR requirement and why does it matter for 1688?
IOR = Importer of Record — the legally responsible party for customs compliance, duty payment, and product safety. For 1688 dropshippers, the IOR is typically the sourcing agent (BuckyDrop/Supplyia/CSSBuy) acting on your behalf. Without a valid IOR, your package sits at customs indefinitely. After EU 2026-07-01, having an EU-resident IOR is the only way to import — Chinese sellers cannot self-clear.
Which sourcing agent bundles EU IOR + VAT remittance?
We do not publish platform-level IOR claims we cannot verify on an official page. What you can verify per order is the shipping line: duty-prepaid (DDP) lines bundle import VAT and duty into the freight, while standard lines hand customs off to a destination-side broker, which adds time and a handling fee. Availability differs by agent and by destination, and the extension only shows the lines an agent actually quotes for your parcel class — so the honest answer is to compare the live line list rather than a fixed league table.