The Postal Flat Fee Died in Four Days — Now the Route Itself Is Closing

AI Summary

The $80/$160/$200 per-item postal duty ran from 24 to 27 February 2026, then ended. A flat 10% ad valorem replaced it until 24 July 2026. From 22 October 2026, Chapter 99 goods leave the postal informal route entirely, and the tariff schedule itself is repealed in 2027.

Most coverage of this subject is out of date in a specific way. It cites a flat per-parcel figure that applied for four days in February, or a 10% rate that expired in July. Neither is what a shipment faces now.

What replaced them is not a rate. It is a route.

What happened

Three instruments, and the sequence matters more than any single rate.

The per-item schedule lasted four days. Executive Order 14324, published at 90 FR 37775, let postal carriers choose between an ad valorem calculation and a specific duty per item: $80 for goods under a 16% rate, $160 between 16% and 25%, and $200 above 25%. Chinese parcels sat in the top band. Executive Order 14388, signed 20 February 2026 and published at 91 FR 9433, carried that schedule forward into the new tariff note — and the same paragraph states it ceases to be effective for entries on or after 28 February 2026. The $200-per-item China figure therefore describes a four-day window, 24 to 27 February 2026.

A flat 10% replaced it, temporarily. From 28 February 2026, Executive Order 14388 substituted a duty equal to the rate in Proclamation 11012 — a Section 122 temporary import surcharge of 10% ad valorem, assessed on the value of each dutiable postal item. That surcharge had a 150-day life and expired on 24 July 2026 without extension.

What applies now. Postal parcels pay ordinary tariff treatment: the Column 1 rate plus whatever Section 301 duty the goods carry. Executive Order 14389 ended the IEEPA duties but expressly preserved Section 232 and Section 301. That matters more after 9 November 2026, when the remaining exclusions end under the Section 301 exclusions schedule, so a parcel that pays the base rate today pays more on the same classification next quarter.

Postal informal entry — the simplified route for mail shipments under 19 CFR 145.12(b), capped at $2,500 in value, filed by email on a spreadsheet with payment through Pay.gov, both due by the seventh day of the month following arrival. It requires a 10-digit HTSUS classification and, since 24 July 2026, an importation bond under 19 CFR 145.15.

Why now

The live date is 22 October 2026, and it is a route closure rather than a rate change.

19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(vi) makes formal entry mandatory for mail merchandise subject to duties under Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 of the tariff schedule. Almost every consumer good made in China carries a Chapter 99 Section 301 code. Those goods therefore fall outside postal informal entry by the text of the regulation itself.

(v) is the other half of the same date, and it catches more than Section 301 does. The compliance date of 22 October 2026 applies to 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) as well as (vi). Subparagraph (v) excludes merchandise subject to the requirements of another government agency — FDA, USDA, CPSC, FCC, EPA — which reaches categories that carry no Chapter 99 code at all. A consumer parcel of a regulated product falls outside the informal postal route on that date for a reason that has nothing to do with tariffs, so a seller whose SKUs are not Section 301 goods is not thereby clear.

CBP delayed enforcement of both exclusions, and the compliance date is 22 October 2026. From that date a Chinese-origin consumer parcel cannot use the postal informal route at all, unless it enters through the one channel that waives the exclusion.

That channel is entry type 13. The electronic informal entry established by 91 FR 38007 commenced on 22 September 2026 and waives 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) and (vi) for participants, which makes it the only informal route currently open to Section 301 Chinese goods. Shipments subject to anti-dumping or countervailing duty, or to quota, remain ineligible. A bond is required.

And the filer is the constraint, not the bond. The International Mail Duty Worksheet requires all applicable 10-digit HTSUS classifications, and CBP concluded that submitting it is customs business. The consequence is that where the filer is not the owner or purchaser of the goods, the filing has to come from a licensed customs broker. CBP’s own estimate in the rule is that roughly half the parties qualified to file under the interim process are not licensed brokers, and every one of them is excluded from 22 October. Foreign postal operators that filed on a seller’s behalf are in that group. The rule also lets a broker file one consolidated monthly worksheet for all its clients, which is the practical question to ask when choosing one.

And the statutory position is already settled. The de minimis exemption under 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(c) is repealed with effect from 1 July 2027 by Pub. L. 119-21. The suspension is not waiting for a restoration. Only bona fide gifts within the $100 and $200 limits, and informational materials, survive.

So what

No official document states a per-parcel dollar cost for a Chinese-origin low-value shipment, and CBP has said why: it was not previously collecting classifications for postal shipments, so it cannot say what the exact increase under the rule is. The number has to be built from the classification and the Section 301 rate, which makes it an input-based calculation rather than a published one. Here is that calculation, on stated inputs:

The base rate and the Section 301 rate are published; the parcel value, the entry preparation cost and the bond cost are inputs. Three conclusions follow.

A flat rate was simpler, and its absence is the real change. Under the 10% surcharge this parcel would have carried $30. Under the four-day schedule it would have carried $200. Now it carries $71.54 in duty and fees plus an entry cost that did not exist as a line item before, because the shipment needs a broker or a filing process.

The per-parcel cost now scales with value, and that reverses which parcels are expensive to serve. A flat $200 per item punished cheap items hardest. Ad valorem treatment punishes expensive ones. A seller whose catalogue is low-value, multi-item parcels is in a different position than one shipping fewer, dearer goods — and the second group now carries the larger relative increase.

The route, not the rate, is the constraint. Duty is a calculation. Entry eligibility is a yes or no. From 22 October a Chinese-origin consumer parcel that has not been set up for entry type 13 cannot use postal informal entry, which means formal entry, which means a broker, a bond and an ACE filing on a parcel that used to clear on a spreadsheet.

So the work is administrative, and it has a date. Three moves: confirm which HTSUS subheading each SKU classifies under and whether it carries a Chapter 99 code, because that single fact decides the route; establish entry type 13 eligibility before 22 October rather than after; and rebuild the landed cost per parcel with the duty arithmetic and the entry cost as separate lines, since the second is now larger than the first for cheap goods.

For you

• Sellers shipping low-value parcels from China to US consumers: the postal informal route closes for your goods on 22 October 2026 unless entry type 13 applies. Establish eligibility, or budget for formal entry per shipment. This is a deadline, not a trend.
• Sellers whose catalogue is mostly low-value, multi-item parcels: ad valorem treatment reduced your duty bill relative to the flat schedule, but the fixed entry cost per shipment is now the dominant term. Consolidating shipments reduces the number of times that cost is paid.
• Sellers with anti-dumping or countervailing exposure: entry type 13 is closed to shipments subject to AD/CVD or quota. There is no informal channel for those goods, and the planning should assume formal entry permanently.
• Anyone modelling off a published article: check the date on it. A $200-per-item figure describes four days in February 2026, and a 10% flat rate describes a window that closed on 24 July 2026. At least one widely-read explainer still states the Section 122 surcharge is in effect.
• Anyone with the same low-value problem in Europe: the EU closed its own relief on a different mechanism and a different date, set out in the EU per-item customs charge analysis. The two regimes do not offset each other, so a seller shipping to both markets carries both.

The data point

FAQ

What does a China-origin postal parcel pay today?

Ordinary tariff treatment: the Column 1 rate plus any Section 301 duty the goods carry, plus the merchandise processing fee, assessed on the value of each dutiable postal item. There is no flat rate and no per-item schedule in force. On a $300 apparel parcel at a 16% base rate and a 7.5% Section 301 rate, the duty and fees come to roughly $71.54, before the cost of preparing and bonding the entry, which is a per-shipment expense rather than a percentage.

Why did the $200-per-item figure disappear so quickly?

Executive Order 14388 carried the per-item schedule into the new tariff note and, in the same paragraph, ended it for entries on or after 28 February 2026. The mechanism it substituted was a duty equal to the rate in Proclamation 11012, a Section 122 surcharge of 10% ad valorem with a 150-day statutory life. That surcharge expired on 24 July 2026 and was not extended. Two replacements in five months, and the coverage has not all caught up.

What changes on 22 October 2026?

From that date CBP enforces the exclusion in 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(vi), which removes mail merchandise subject to Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 duties from postal informal entry. Since nearly all Chinese consumer goods carry a Chapter 99 Section 301 code, they lose that route. Entry type 13, the electronic informal entry under 91 FR 38007, waives the exclusion for participants and is currently the only informal channel open to them. Shipments subject to anti-dumping or countervailing duty, or to quota, are not eligible for it.

Is the exemption coming back?

No. Pub. L. 119-21 repeals the de minimis exemption effective 1 July 2027. The suspension applies to all countries with no restoration date, and the statute removes the provision itself rather than pausing it. That distinction is the practical one for planning: a suspension can be lifted by an administrative act, while a repealed provision has to be re-enacted by Congress before it can return. The only surviving reliefs are the bona fide gift allowances of $100, and $200 for the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa, together with informational materials and donations.

How we calculated this

No official document states a per-parcel cost for this route, so the figure is built from published rates plus three inputs of yours: parcel value, entry preparation cost and bond cost. The rates are sourced; the rest is your own quotation.

duty and fees = value x (Column 1 rate + Section 301 rate + MPF 0.3464%)
$71.54        = $300 x (16.0% + 7.5% + 0.3464%)
total above goods value = $71.54 + entry preparation and bond ($20 to $60)

Substitute your own parcel value, your SKU’s Column 1 rate and the broker quote you actually receive, and keep the entry cost as a separate line rather than blending it into the rate.

The point

This is a policy that changed shape three times in five months, and the shape matters more than the rate. A flat per-item fee is a pricing decision; an ad valorem rate is a margin calculation; removing a route is an operational one. The current position is the third kind, and it lands on 22 October 2026 — which means the preparation is classification and enrolment rather than pricing, and the sellers who treat it as a pricing question will discover the difference when a parcel is refused release.