Indo-US trade tensions spill into postal services

FROM August 25, India Post will suspend most categories of mail to the US due to American carriers’ refusal to process parcels under new US customs rules. Only letters, documents and gifts valued under $100 will continue to be accepted. The suspension, necessitated by an executive order in Washington that scraps the duty-free ‘de minimis’ facility, makes low-value imports into the US costlier and harder to ship. Unable to meet the compliance demands of this new regime, carriers have halted operations, forcing India Post to follow suit. India is not alone. Several European postal services have also suspended shipments to the US. This underscores that the problem lies not in the efficiency of national postal systems but in Washington’s increasingly restrictive trade and customs framework. What seems like a technical matter of parcel processing is, in reality, an extension of tariff politics.

This disruption is part of the broader trade friction between New Delhi and Washington. Recently, the US raised tariffs on several Indian products, including cotton exports, tightening pressure on India’s farm sector. In a balancing act, New Delhi eliminated its own 11 per cent import duty on raw cotton — a longstanding demand of the textile industry — arguing it would help mills access cheaper inputs. Yet the timing, coming amid US pressure and 50 per cent tariffs on Indian cotton, has sparked debate over whether this decision undermines farmers while placating global partners.

For ordinary citizens, however, the tariff chess game translates into everyday inconvenience. Families can no longer send essentials easily, students are cut off from study materials and small exporters who rely on low-cost postal logistics face crippling uncertainty. India must not only press diplomatically for smoother trade and postal links, but also invest in strengthening its own logistics ecosystem. For now, even an ordinary parcel is collateral damage in a tariff war — an everyday casualty of high-level decisions.

Editorials