World News for Students of English

08-07-2026 07:00

The EU starts charging a new 3-euro fee on cheap packages from China. This new rule targets popular online shops like Shein, Temu, and AliExpress.

Before this change, these companies didn’t pay import taxes on cheap goods, which helped them sell products at very low prices and grow fast. But European businesses complained that this was unfair. The number of small packages that entered Europe grew from 1.4 billion to 5.8 billion in 2025.

Politicians say that Chinese companies abused the old rules. Now, buyers must pay 3 euros for each type of item in a box. For example, a parcel with three different types of items will cost 9 euros. The United States also started a similar tax on Chinese goods earlier this year to help US companies.

Difficult words: fee (an amount of money that you must pay for a service), target (to choose a specific person, group, or company to focus on, attack, or change with a new rule), goods (things and objects which people buy and sell).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.