Yes. USPS said it would continue accepting inbound international mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts starting February 5, 2025, reversing a temporary package suspension announced the day before. The reversal restored postal acceptance; it did not, by itself, restore the former customs de minimis treatment for covered goods.
What happened
- February 4, 2025: USPS announced a temporary suspension of inbound international packages from China and Hong Kong Posts, effective that day and lasting until further notice. Its initial notice did not state a reason, according to The Associated Press.
- February 5, 2025: USPS reversed course, saying it would continue accepting all inbound international mail and packages from those origins. In a statement reproduced by WIRED, USPS said: “The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.”
The interruption was roughly a day. The suspension applied to packages, not letters and flats, according to AP’s contemporaneous account.
Why did USPS stop accepting packages?
USPS did not give a reason in its initial suspension notice, so the cause of that announcement is not established. Its February 5 explanation concerned the reversal: USPS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were working on a way to collect new China tariffs while minimizing disruption to deliveries. That statement does not explain what prompted the original suspension.
Did the reversal restore the de minimis exemption?
No. USPS acceptance and customs treatment are separate questions. USPS’s announcement addressed whether it would accept inbound mail and packages; CBP’s guidance addressed customs clearance and the treatment of covered imports.
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On February 3, 2025, CBP said most covered products from China, including Hong Kong products described in the notice, would no longer qualify for de minimis clearance beginning February 4. The guidance said its described ACE-processing procedures did not cover postal shipments. CBP later said ACE resumed processing de minimis clearances for China and Hong Kong products on February 7. These customs updates did not determine whether USPS was accepting packages. See CBP’s February 3 guidance and its February 11 update.
The scale of low-value imports helps explain the attention to the policy: CBP reported that more than 1.36 billion de minimis packages entered the United States in fiscal year 2024, a figure reported by WIRED. That total was not a count of China-origin packages or USPS shipments.
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What should you do if you are waiting for a package?
- For a specific parcel, check its tracking information; the 2025 policy episode does not establish an individual package’s route, status, fees, or delivery date.
- For current international service suspensions, check the USPS International Service Alerts page. Updated October 2, 2026, it lists other active suspensions, not China or Hong Kong. The alert page is a service-disruption list, not parcel-level tracking or a delivery estimate.
- Do not assume every order from a Chinese retailer is shipped as an individual China Post parcel. The 2025 announcements do not establish how a particular retailer routed an order.
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