Predicitons for Ebay international options after EU new import fees? CETA?
Summary: The discussion centered around the potential impacts of new European Union import fees on eBay's international options, with a mention of CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). Several participants, including rdemaree, marnotom!, electronicsextraordinaire, and others, engaged in the conversation but provided few specific details in their posts. The conversation seemed speculative, with participants questioning how the changes could affect buying and selling on eBay across international borders.
The EU is planning on removing their diminimis mmaking all small value packages subject to flat fees starting in July and then a processing fee starting later this year. From what it looks like is this will be a temporary measure until 2029 when import fees will be more targeted.
What I am confused by is what will happen to CETA compliant products sold on ebay to the EU?
Is ebay going to force us to either use EIS or else pay the import fees as if we are all selling junk from China? I may need to ship with netparcel UPS to access CETA treatment and just use flat rates for EU customers like I do with Americans since the EIS is overpriced, slow, and incredibly restrictive on what they allow to be shipped and I dont foresee ebay doing much for free trade sellers anytime soon.
I sell 85% items made in Canada, 15% made in EU (UK usually), and I sell a few things here and there from USA and I have 1 single item I stock made in China.
Currently ebay has no options for CUSMA sellers to the USA so im assuming they will take the same approach to CETA sellers selling to EU. Its either EIS or nothing if I had to guess.
I really hope I am wrong but ebay tends to take the most broad brush approach to these sorts of things, as we can see with how they treat CUSMA sellers.
I literally cant even use the EIS even if I was ok with my packages each triple to ship and taking times longer to arrive to my customers. They are incredibly strict on what they allow to be shipped. Most vintage stuff gets confiscated and same with art supplies (which are both what I sell) - never had issues with any other carriers shipping GLOBALLY other than EIS/ GSP in the last 10+ years.
I really hope ebay is cooking up something in the background more accessible than the EIS, which isnt even allowed to be used by everyone due to how bogged down by restrictions it is. I could see myself using EIS for international buyers MAYBE if they werent so beaurocratic and strict but id never use them for USA becaue it would obliterate my competitive edge due to how expensive and slow it is. It truly is a lousy program by most measures imo.
Thoughts?
mandicrafts
·2 months agoIt won't have an effect on how we ship to the EU. The EU buyer will pay whatever fee is required upon delivery as per usual. The individual country's customs will bill the EU buyer.
The USA is virtually the ONLY country in the world that forces any duty/import fees to be prepaid. Other countries just process upon customs entry, and bills the recipient.
Initially, it appears that there will be only a 3 Euro charges for certain parcels/value, so I doubt that will deter sales.
malau365
·2 months agoBonjour,
You can find all on European commission site : Accces2Markets-My trade assistant.
You can choose the language.
The main challenge for everyone and for all countries is proof of origin.
Have a nice day.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 months agoThey have PETA for Peoples Ethical Protection of Animals. Now CETA. They need something for the Protections (that) Include Small Sellers!!! (Not sure if that acronym would go over too well but it about sums it up!!!)
malau365
·2 months agoSmall retailers have always been squeezed out by the big players in the market, and with international trade, the situation can only get worse. At this level, it is the giants who call the shots.
We have no choice: we must adapt or go out of business.
rdemaree
OP2 months agoIts a rough world right now for Canadian small sellers getting hit by Americans and now Europeans...
without CUSMA and CETA its lights out for alot of folks unfortunately because Canada is such a small pool of people to sell to alone
recped
·2 months agoI think that is an over the top reaction. This new fee while a pain to deal with is no more of a "lights out" thing than a $5 increase in international (EU and Probably UK only) shipping costs which is something we have all dealt with multple times over the past couple of decades.
marnotom!
·2 months agoAnd as has been pointed out elsewhere, sales to the EU don’t generally make up a huge proportion of most Canadian eBayers’ total sales in the first place.
rdemaree
OP2 months agoIm saying not having free trade with EU in conjunction with USA would be lights out. Obviously this leans much heavier on free trade with the USA for geographical and spending patterns reasons.
All eyes on July. Hopefully trumps tariffs will peacefully expire and that CUSMA will be renewed as is or minimally changed.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 months agoIt's easy for the Canadian gov. and eBay for that matter to say expand your market to include other countries. Not so easy when there are restrictions/added costs to do so along with both crazy shipping costs and limited options to do so.
In USA's case it IS close and shipping pre the Donald was reasonable...When you could use discounted ebay label shipping in conjunction with CP/UPS. Throw in customs processing charges and unless the buyer cannot find the item elsewhere it weakened it as an option.
marnotom!
·2 months agoMaybe I'm being a bit naive, but I can't see this development taking things too far beyond what we're dealing with presently. If both DDU and DDP shipments are going to be supported in light of these tariffs, it looks to me as though customs is going to be responsible for collecting the tariffs for DDU packages just as they currently are for shipments valued above the de minimis. The big issue, of course, is that in many EU countries, we should expect to see a big backlog in mailed shipments having to go through this process.
Sellers who don't want their items to be subject to customs backlogs will, of course, use eIS or some other means for shipment.
As far as identifying CETA-compliant goods, my guess is that the CN22 will be modified to have a field for country of origin.
rdemaree
OP2 months agoI certainly hope so! I hope the EU takes a more rational approach to it than the USA which has been a dumpster fire.
You cant even use the postal system to send to the USA for CUSMA items. I hope EU still allows for use of the postal system for CETA shipments. I know my HS codes, COO and have my Made In Canada stickers ready for inside and outside of the packages and even have a CETA form I did fill out for 1 customer 1 time I could use as a template.
electronicsextraordinaire
·2 months agorecped
·2 months agohttps://www.international.gc.ca/trade-commerce/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/ceta-aecg/overview-apercu.aspx?lang=eng
electronicsextraordinaire
·2 months agoAm I missing something? Because I couldn't find an answer to the question.
marnotom!
·2 months agoThis won't answer all your questions, but it's a good start. Note especially the section that makes a distinction between DAP (DDU) and DDP shipments:
https://carraglobe.com/eu-de-minimis-changes-2026/
rdemaree
OP2 months agoYeah unfortunately nothing in that article is news to me or helps me in any way.
I ship nearly 90% CETA compliant products into the EU. I virtually dont stock asian or south american mass produced items.
Most of my products are handmade art supplies in CANADA and some vintage European art supplies with the ocassional vintage American art supplies.
I am primarily interested if there will be any way to prove CETA compliance and avoid the new import fees the way I do with USA via CUSMA compliance for my North American products.
One significant difference is I rely MUCH less on EU than I do USA customers so the disruption will be minimal, although obviously I want to minimize it as much as possible.
I theorize I will have to start charging international flat rates and just ship via netparcel similar to how I charge flat rates to the USA and ship through ChitChats.