Australia Post is set to resume business and parcel services to the US. Photos: James Coleman.
What a difference two weeks make.
Australia Post has found a way and will once again be sending parcels to the United States.
The service will resume before the end of the month, after it was suspended over the punitive tariff regime imposed by Donald Trump.
The government-owned postal service announced on 26 August that it was immediately, temporarily and partially suspending postal sending to the US and Puerto Rico.
The suspension also impacted parcel deliveries to Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, US Virgin Islands and US Minor Outlying Islands.
Australia Post took the action in response to “recent significant changes” the US Government has made to customs and import tariff rules for parcels sent to the US.
Those changes include the US suspending the de minimis exemption for inbound goods and requiring the pre-payment of tariffs before an item arrived in the US.
De minimis is a common law principle giving exemption to “trivial matters”.
In relation to the US’s inbound goods, the threshold was previously US$800, but this will no longer be the case.
So, except for letters, cards, documents, and gifts in parcels worth less than A$150, everything else earmarked for the US ground to a halt.
But two weeks later, Australia Post has found a way to meet the new tariff rules and started sending parcels across the Pacific again.
It plans to resume postal sending to the US and its overseas territories on or before Thursday, 25 September 2025.
Australia Post executive general manager for parcel, post and ecommerce services, Gary Starr, said the decision to suspend the service was a difficult one to make, but was a similar action taken by the postal services of other nations.
“Along with more than 190 other postal providers internationally, we’ve been caught in a fast-moving situation not of our making,” he said.
“The real impact has been on our customers who export their goods to the US, accessing our cost-efficient postal service, so we’ve been working around the clock to find a solution.
“Our priority has always been to have a solution up and running as soon as possible, while keeping our customers updated and informed.
“We want to provide customers with as much notice as possible to prepare and facilitate their business planning.
“While we are planning to lift the temporary suspension on Thursday, 25 September, if we are able to lift this earlier, we absolutely will.”
Australia Post is working with Zonos, one of a limited number of authorised US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) third-party providers, and Universal Postal Union third-party providers.
It hopes these collaborations will enable it to offer Australia Post Business Contract and My Post Business customers a solution to meet the new rules and allow deliveries to the US to resume.
Australia Post also offers a commercial service outside the traditional postal network for large export customers, which remains open.
Australia Post is also working on a separate solution to allow customers to send parcels to the US via the Post Office network.
Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh, however, said Australia Post has a few questions to answer.
“The resumption of postal services by 25 September is welcomed, but this will come at an increased cost to small and family businesses getting their goods to the US,” she said
“The big question is: how much will Australians have to pay for postal services to United States under these new arrangements?
“Australian businesses are struggling with skyrocketing energy costs, high inflation, increased regulation, industrial relations changes and the uncertainties of postal services thanks to the Albanese Labor Government.
“The government needs to address why they haven’t locked in a meeting with President Trump to work towards ending the tariff dispute.”
Mr Trump has described the shipping of duty-free parcels as a “catastrophic loophole” to “evade tariffs”.
He said it also allowed for “deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products that harm American workers and businesses” to be funnelled into the US.
“The de minimis exemption has been abused, with shippers sending illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, precursors, and paraphernalia into the United States in reliance on the lower security measures applied to de minimis shipments, killing Americans,” his order read.
Australia Post customers seeking an update on services can check the organisation’s website or call 13 POST (13 7678).
