The European Union is set to remove duty relief for small parcels (valued at or under €150) from July, and has brought proposals to introduce a €2 handling fee from 1 November this year. Currently, consignments valued at or below €150 imported into the EU from overseas sellers benefit from customs duty relief.

Dr Steve Aiken OBE MLA commented:

“As previously reported by the UUP, this fee will be on a flat rate of €2 for 25% on all parcels being delivered in Northern Ireland. The additional handling fee, per parcel, hasn't been defined yet. Although within the EU, a fee of €3 is being widely discussed.

"At the very least we can now expect, for 25% of all parcels coming into Northern Ireland, we'll be paying €5 per parcel. This is in marked contrast to the 'understanding' that the Northern Ireland Office has previously made that these charges will make a minimal impact. 

“For Alliance, those rigorous implementors, who refuse to ever challenge EU regulations, we look forward to hearing from them on how being charged €5, under their Alliance Tax, is in any way equitable.

“If we had accurate HMRC trade data beyond it is 'tens of millions of parcels' we could then make an accurate assessment of how much the Alliance Tax will cost us. But like many of these issues, there is no information beyond that it will mean we will be paying millions in EU duty and administration fee's, a compulsory tax that the rest of the United Kingdom won't be paying".