# Posting to the US just got more expensive

From 24 July 2026 goods posted to the US go through a new CBP informal entry process and can be assessed for full US tariffs. Who pays, and what to check.

From 24 July 2026, goods valued at US$2,500 or less arriving in the United
States by international mail must be cleared under a new postal informal
entry process — a customs entry filed on posted items, with its own rules on
who may file, the data required, bonds, payment and deadlines, set out by US
Customs and Border Protection.
The source is CBP's [CSMS bulletin "Updated Global Guidance for International Mail"](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/41fa7f0), dated 8 July 2026.

The practical effect for a UK Shopify merchant: posting an order no longer
sidesteps US tariffs, and someone — you or your customer — pays them.

This piece is for UK Shopify merchants who post orders to US customers
through Royal Mail or another postal service, not for stores already moving
stock through commercial freight and a customs broker.

## What changed on 24 July 2026?

Until recently, posting was the quiet route into the US: low-value items
moved under the de minimis exemption with little entry paperwork and no
duty. That route has been closing in stages, and the July change formalises
the end of it for postal traffic.

| Date | What changed |
| --- | --- |
| 29 August 2025 | The US suspended the US$800 de minimis duty-free exemption for imports from all countries, so posted parcels became dutiable regardless of value ([business.gov.uk](https://www.business.gov.uk/export-from-uk/markets/united-states/de-minimis-shipments-us/)) |
| 24 July 2026 | Goods valued at US$2,500 or less arriving by international mail must be entered under CBP's new postal informal entry process, with defined rules on filers, data, bonds, payment and deadlines ([CBP CSMS bulletin](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCBP/bulletins/41fa7f0)) |

Around the same time, Royal Mail was reported to have told business senders that postal shipments to
the US may be assessed for Most Favoured Nation duties, Section 232 and
Section 301 tariffs and other charges, and advised sellers to review their
customs classifications, product descriptions, declared values and origin
data — guidance reported by the trade title ChannelX. We could not locate Royal Mail's own published version, so treat it as trade-press reporting rather than Royal Mail's words. In short: the data on your customs form
now sets what your parcel is charged, so it needs to be right.

## Which US tariffs can now hit a posted parcel?

More than one, and they stack by classification and origin rather than by
how the parcel travelled. We deliberately quote no rates here: US tariff
policy moved repeatedly through 2025 and 2026, and the only reliable source
for a current figure is the official [Harmonized Tariff
Schedule](https://hts.usitc.gov/) entry for your product's classification.

| Charge | What it is | When it can apply to your parcel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| MFN duty | The standard US tariff for the product's HS classification | Any dutiable item, set by classification |
| Section 232 | National-security tariffs on steel, aluminium and other listed materials, including derivative products containing them | Products in scope by their material content — check the current scope against the tariff schedule |
| Section 301 | Tariffs on goods of Chinese origin | Items made in China, wherever they are posted from |
| Other measures | Further duties introduced through 2025–26, applied by country of origin | Depends on origin and the measures in force on the day — verify at dispatch |

Two things follow. First, the country of origin of the goods matters, not
the country of dispatch — a China-made product posted from Peterborough is
still Chinese-origin to US customs. Second, a wrong or vague HS code is no
longer a paperwork nicety; misclassification can mean the wrong duty, and
under-declared values invite reassessment.

## Who pays the duty — you or your customer?

The decision that actually moves your margin is the delivery terms you sell
on. Post has historically meant the customer pays on arrival; a duty bill
landing on an unwarned US customer is now large enough to lose the order.

|  | DDP — you pay | DAP/DDU — customer pays |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who pays duty and fees | You, collected at checkout or absorbed | The customer, billed before or at delivery |
| When the cost appears | In your pricing and checkout total | After purchase, as a surprise demand |
| Customer experience | One total, no surprises | Refusal, complaints and chargeback risk |
| Margin impact | Direct — duty comes out of your price unless you raise it | Indirect — lost sales, returns and refused parcels |
| Shopify setup | Collect duties and import taxes at checkout where your plan or market setup supports it, or price duty into US totals | Say so plainly on product, cart and shipping pages |

Neither answer is free. DDP protects conversion and puts the cost on you;
DAP protects your sticker price and puts the risk on the delivery. What is
no longer available is the old default of not deciding, because the old
default assumed post was duty-free.

## What should a UK Shopify merchant do this week?

Work through the customs data first, then the pricing decision:

1. Pull your US-bound catalogue and check every HS classification, product
description, declared value and country of origin — the four fields
that seller guidance flags, per the ChannelX report.
2. Look up the current duty for your main products' classifications on the
[Harmonized Tariff Schedule](https://hts.usitc.gov/), including any
Section 232 or 301 layer that applies by material or origin.
3. Build a landed cost per product for a typical US order: item price,
postage, duty and fees. That number, not the postage rate, is what your
US customer comparison-shops against.
4. Decide DDP or DAP deliberately, set your Shopify checkout and shipping
profiles to match, and say who pays duty on the pages customers read
before buying.
5. Re-check rates before large dispatches. The pattern of 2025–26 is that
US tariff settings change; treat any figure older than your last check
as stale.

The shape of the problem will be familiar if you dealt with [Meta's 2% UK
location fee](/blog/meta-2-percent-uk-location-fee): a cost added outside
the dashboards you normally watch, which quietly rewrites your real margin
until you put it into the model. If your US pricing, markets setup or
checkout needs restructuring to carry duties properly, that is [store-build
work](/services/presence/ecommerce-stores), not a settings tweak.

## Decide who pays before your customer finds out

Shipping cost is rarely one line on its own: the same squeeze from the carrier side is in [Royal Mail's new charges](/blog/royal-mail-surcharges-peak-2026).

True Noise is a UK digital agency in Peterborough working with small UK
businesses, including Shopify merchants selling into the US.

We will model your US landed costs, check your customs data and set your checkout up for whichever duty answer you choose.