Business customers will be able to use DHL Parcel International for shipping from Germany to the USA again from September 25, after four weeks of suspension due to new legal regulations.
The Post & Parcel Germany division of DL Group says it is one of the first postal and parcel services worldwide to resume this type of shipping.
This has been made possible by the Postal Delivered Duty Paid (PDDP) service, which DHL previously offered only for goods shipping to Norway, the UK and Switzerland, but will now be extended to the USA.
Furthermore, DHL says it has overhauled the process of data collection, customs reporting and payment of applicable customs fees to comply with the new customs regulations outlined in the US government’s Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for all Countries executive order. This came into effect on August 29, 2025, and includes the removal of the previous duty-free threshold for goods valued up to US$800.
Additionally, new processes required by US authorities for postal shipping are being introduced, which differ from the previously applicable regulations. Due to some unresolved questions, all major postal companies worldwide, including Deutsche Post/DHL, were forced to temporarily suspend postal goods shipping to the USA.
What changes for new customers
Business customers who wish to send goods valued up to and including US$800 via postal service to the USA must now pay attention to three things:
1) Goods valued up to and including US$800 have been subject to customs duties since August 29. The duty-free threshold of US$100 applies only to private gifts, not to commercial shipments;
2) Booking the PDDP service is mandatory for postal goods shipping via DHL, where the sender covers all import duties for their recipient customers in advance;
3) Senders must provide complete and accurate customs data, particularly the customs tariff number and country of origin for each individual item.
The price for the PDDP service to the USA is €2 (US$2.36) per shipment. Additionally, the fees from the service provider – referred to as the ‘qualified party’ – and the customs duties themselves will be passed on to the business customers without any markup.
The ad valorem (according to value) method will be used to calculate customs duties. DHL emphasizes that the actual parcel prices to the USA will remain stable. The additional costs incurred by business customers for postal shipping to the USA will be based solely on external factors for which DHL is not responsible and over which it has no control, the company says.
The new shipping process does not apply to private customers. Packages from individuals to individuals with a goods value up to US$100, declared as ‘gift’, are not affected by the new regulations in the USA. However, these shipments will be monitored even more closely than before to prevent the misuse of private gift shipments for shipping commercial goods.
There are also no changes for shipping documents in letters. Shipping goods via DHL Express and the commercial import of goods into the USA under the currently applicable customs rates remains possible.
The new shipping modalities for postal goods shipping from Germany to the USA only affect products under the DHL Parcel brand. Products from other DHL divisions, such as DHL Express or DHL eCommerce, are not affected.
In related news, Zonos has been approved by US Customs and Border Protection to collect and remit duty on USA-bound shipments