Australia Post suspends postage to US amid tariff uncertainty
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Australia Post has indefinitely suspended most shipping to the US as new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration loom.
The context: Australia Post will not facilitate Australians looking to ship to the US from today, with exceptions for letters and documents worth less than $150.
It comes after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on goods worth under USD800 ($1233) last month, with senders forced to prepay the tariffs before their parcels arrive in the US.
That posed a major impediment for companies which did not have their own mechanism for facilitating payments, with Australia Post working with third-party payment platform Zonos.
Australia Post executive general manager Gary Starr described the pause as “temporary”, saying it would buy time to find a “workable solution”.
“Guidance from [US Customs and Border Protection] has only recently been issued and, like more than 190 other postal providers, we’ve been working at pace to find a solution,” Starr said in a statement.
Similar pauses have been enacted, or are set to be enacted, across a host of European countries in response to Trump’s changes.
Canberra has consistently urged the Trump administration to abandon its sweeping tariff regime, in which Australia received the lowest rate of 10%.
What they said: “We are disappointed we have had to take this action,” Starr said.
The source: Australia Post statement
