The $800 duty-free threshold is gone for every country and every shipping method. Here's what that actually changes for a small EU seller.
For years, a shipment to the US valued at $800 or less generally cleared customs automatically, with minimal paperwork and no duty. Executive Order 14324, signed 30 July 2025, suspended that exemption for all countries. US Customs and Border Protection then made the suspension indefinite for courier and express shipments through an interim final rule effective 24 June 2026 (Federal Register, 91 FR 37789), with a companion rule doing the same for postal shipments.
The practical effect for a small EU seller: there is currently no value below which a commercial shipment to a US customer clears automatically without duty. Every commercial order, regardless of price, now generally needs formal or informal customs entry and is subject to the applicable US tariff rate for that product's HS code. This guide is a checklist of what that means for how you actually price, document and ship US orders — not a repeat of the legal background, which is covered in more depth on the de minimis explainer linked below.
No — Cargosender books US shipments the same way as before, through Eurosender's courier network, and express services generally still handle customs clearance electronically as part of the booking. What's changed is the underlying US legal position, not Cargosender's process: declare an accurate value, provide a correct commercial invoice with HS code, and expect that duty now applies in cases where it previously wouldn't have.
Under-declaring value to try to stay 'under the threshold' — there is no threshold to stay under anymore, and misdeclaring value is a customs violation regardless.
Labelling a commercial sale as a 'gift' to try to use the gift exemption — that exemption has its own, much lower value cap and is for genuine non-commercial gifts, not a workaround for commercial orders.
Assuming your existing shop settings or shipping app still reflect the old $800 rule — many third-party shipping calculators and plugins were built around the old exemption and may not yet reflect the 2026 change.
Not as a general commercial exemption. The former $800 de minimis threshold is suspended for all countries and transport modes as of the 24 June 2026 CBP rule. The only remaining exceptions are bona fide gifts (a much lower cap, historically around $100) and travellers' personal effects — neither is a substitute for the old commercial threshold.
No — the booking process itself is unchanged. What matters is providing an accurate declared value and correct HS code on your commercial invoice, since duty now applies to US orders of any value where it might not have before.
That's a business decision you make, not something Cargosender or Eurosender decides for you. You can build the expected duty into your price (so the customer pays nothing extra on delivery) or let the customer pay it when the parcel arrives — just be clear about which approach you're using in your store's shipping policy.
Look up your product's HS code on the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule (hts.usitc.gov) — rates vary significantly by category, sometimes from 0% to over 30% for similar-looking products, so the exact code matters.
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