On February 5th, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced the resumption of accepting inbound packages from mainland China and Hong Kong. This followed a brief suspension announced on February 4th, which halted package acceptance until further notice. However, this decision lasted just one day, and USPS quickly resumed its package acceptance services.

This swift reversal did not have a significant impact on the operations of Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Shein in the U.S. These platforms had previously relied on USPS’s cost-effective delivery services to ship millions of products to the U.S. market every week.

Some analysts believe the decision to resume acceptance of packages from China and Hong Kong may have been influenced by ongoing discussions between USPS and Customs and Border Protection regarding the implementation of new tariff policies.

In its announcement regarding the resumption of package acceptance, USPS stated that it would collaborate closely with Customs and Border Protection to ensure an efficient transportation system for the new tariff policy, minimizing any potential disruptions to package deliveries. Therefore, while USPS has resumed accepting packages, the shipping and customs clearance processes may undergo changes due to the new tariff policies.