Shipping gets complicated: DHL suspends shipments to the United States

This appears to be yet another unexpected consequence of tariffs. In recent days, DHL has announced that shipments exceeding $800 will be halted as of April 21st, 2025. The reason for this is that DHL must scale up its operations to handle the increased volume of customs clearance now imposed by the United States.

What I suspect is happening is that many packages from other countries entering the United States in the past had a declared value under $800. Before this February, those packages would not have been charged any fees and would have cleared customs relatively easily.

Now that all packages, regardless of value, will be charged tariffs, shippers are more apt to put the correct prices on the packages. If the packages have a good chance of being inspected, it makes more sense to stop trying to slip under the radar of US customs. This ultimately overwhelmed DHL's ability to clear items through US customs in a timely manner, forcing a suspension while they dealt with the backlog.

While UPS, FedEx, and other couriers have not yet done the same, I would expect them to follow suit as well. Regardless, it's a good indicator that if you ordered something from overseas, it may take significantly more time to arrive in your hands.

This, of course, isn't much of an issue if you do your purchasing from Adorama, Amazon or B&H PhotoVideo or the like, but it may be down the road, especially if even those companies get hampered in bringing in goods into the USA. DHL Specifically mentions this should not necessarily affect B2B, but there may be more delays.

From DHL;

Effective April 5, 2025, all shipments to the U.S. with a declared customs value over USD 800 require formal entry processing - down from the previous USD 2,500 threshold due to new U.S. Customs regulations.

This change has caused a surge in formal customs clearances, which we are handling around the clock.

While we are working diligently to scale up and manage this increase, shipments over USD 800—regardless of origin—may experience multi-day delays.

To manage this, starting Monday, April 21, 2025, and until further notice, we will temporarily suspend B2C shipments to private individuals in the U.S. where the declared value exceeds USD 800.

Business-to-business (B2B) shipments to U.S. companies with a declarable value above USD 800 are not affected by the temporary suspension, though they may also face delays.

This is a temporary measure, and we will share updates as the situation evolves.