As tariffs dominate the headlines, action is needed to stop stock ‘dumping’ in the UK says BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson
Global markets have been sent into a tailspin by developments on international trade driven by the actions of US President Donald Trump.
Every retailer I speak to is trying to work through various scenarios on what they might mean to their supply chains and the cost of goods they import – an impossible task at this point given we just don’t know where it’s all going to land.
But one issue this debate on international trade has thrown into sharp focus is that of the de minimis rule.
Many countries have a de minimis rule for imports, which allows lower-value products to be imported for B2C sales without paying duty and/or other taxes.
They are intended to both reduce the burden on trade enforcement agencies, to allow them to focus on higher-value, volume imports and to ease the burden for consumers and small-scale traders of low-value items.
Rates of de minimis vary between countries.
“Retailers are seeing increasing volumes of products entering the UK market that may not be compliant with UK safety standards”
The current UK level is £135 per parcel and in the EU €150. In 2024, approximately 4.6 billion low-value consignments (under €150) entered the EU – nearly 12 million parcels per day. This was double the 2023 volume and triple that of 2022. There isn’t any readily available data on the volume of goods entering the UK under the scheme, but it will likely have followed a similar trend.
Retailers are seeing increasing volumes of products entering the UK market that may not be compliant with UK safety standards or subject to other customs requirements such as ethical and environmental standards.
The EU was already taking action on this before the events of the last few weeks started to unfold, by proposing to remove the de minimis duty exemption for low-value parcels and launching coordinated controls between customs and market surveillance authorities on product safety.
Removing the threshold and ensuring the importer to the EU registers with customs and then possible checks at the border would mean non-compliant products are more likely to be intercepted.
“The big concern for many is that goods destined for the US but facing large tariffs will be diverted to other markets including the UK”
The massive changes in US-China tariffs, and indeed other countries despite the temporary pause, will have a significant impact on global trade. The big concern for many is that goods destined for the US but facing large tariffs will be diverted to other markets including the UK.
Together with the US closing of its de minimis rules, retailers are rightly concerned we will see more traders outside the UK taking advantage of our de minimis rule to sell their displaced stock from the US, undercut domestic retailers and put consumer safety at risk.
The UK government is currently considering its trade policy in response to the US decision on tariffs. This could include retaliatory tariffs and/or support for domestic producers at risk from surplus US supplies being dumped on our market.
As part of its review, the government should consider the operation of the de minimis rule. A reconsideration of this policy, which was designed to reduce the burden on low-volume, low-value imports, is overdue – and the current environment makes it that much more critical. So that is exactly what we are asking them to do.
A change would bring fairness to domestic producers, fairness to retailers, fairness to the UK in ensuring duty is collected and fairness to consumers who already get great value through a competitive market but need more certainty that all the products they buy are safe and legal.
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