Australia Post gearing up to resume suspended services to the US before the end of September

Australia Post is gearing up to resume postal sending to the United States and its overseas territories before the end of this month after suspending them in August due to changes to customs and import tariff rules.

The Australian mail service provider says it is working with Zonos, which is one of a few authorised US Customs and Border Protection and Universal Postal Union third-party providers, to offer Australia Post’s Business Contract and My Post Business customers a solution to meet the new rules and allow deliveries to the US to resume.

“Along with more than 190 other postal providers internationally, we’ve been caught in a fast-moving situation not of our making,” says Gary Starr, the Australia Post executive general manager for Parcel, Post & eCommerce Services.

“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.”

Australia Post is expecting to resume services to the US, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, US Virgin Islands and US Minor Outlying Islands on 25 September.

“If we are able to lift this earlier, we absolutely will,” says Starr.

Australia Post had indicated last month that the US deliveries suspension would be temporary after the US extinguished the "de minimis" exemption for inbound goods from 29 August.

This was in place for goods valued at US$800 or less and those requiring the pre-payment of tariffs prior to an item’s arrival in the US.

Melbourne-based Virago Logistics, which provides logistics services for fashion, skincare and beauty, revealed to Business News Australia last week that the de minimis changes were having a big impact on smaller Australian brands with a heavy reliance on low-priced US sales.

“Twelve months ago, we had huge orders going to the US and now we don’t,” Virago co-founder Em Frost said.

Australia Post points out today that it also offers a commercial service outside of the traditional postal network for large export customers, which remains open.

The mail carrier says it is working on a separate solution to allow customers to send parcels to the US via the Post Office network. Currently, gifts valued at under US$100 are exempt from the tariff impacts.