World News for Students of English

08-07-2026 07:00

The EU has introduced a new 3-euro fee on low-value e-commerce parcels from China, which targets major online retailers like Shein, Temu, and AliExpress.

Previously, these platforms entered the EU bloc duty-free under a long-standing exemption for goods under 150 euros. However, policymakers and European retailers complained about unfair competition after the number of exempt parcels surged from 1.4 billion to 5.8 billion in 2025. Lawmakers argue that this tax loophole was abused on an industrial scale, which gave Chinese giants a massive competitive advantage over local businesses.

Under the new rules, fees are applied per item category in a shipment; for example, a package with three different types of products will incur a 9-euro charge. This decision follows similar strict actions by the US, which completely ended its own low-value import exemptions earlier this year to protect its domestic market.

Difficult words: retailer (a person, shop, or online business that sells goods directly to customers for their personal use), exemption (a special permission that says a person or a company doesn’t have to pay a tax or follow a rule), loophole (a small mistake or missing part in a law that allows people to avoid paying taxes or following a rule legally), competitive advantage (a special strength, lower price, or condition that makes one company much better and more successful than its rivals).

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