Belizean Businesses Hit a Snag as U.S. Tariffs Halt Postal Shipments

Last night, we brought you the news that Belizean businesses are facing a major shake-up. The Belize Postal Service has announced that it is suspending certain shipments to the United States, and that’s left many local exporters scrambling. So, what’s behind this sudden move? It all comes down to new U.S. trade tariffs. These updated regulations now require duties to be paid on every single item, starting from the very first dollar. That’s a big change from how things used to work, and it’s already causing ripple effects across the business community. Today, we followed up with Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Christopher Coye. He helped shed more light on what these new rules mean for Belize, and what steps are being taken to navigate this new trade landscape.

 

Christopher Coye, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance

“Certainly the tariffs is not a tariff being introduced by Belize or this government. It is a tariff in place in the U.S. As far as I understand there use to be a di minimis exception for small value imports into the U.S. that exception has been removed by the U.S. government. So, it has an impact in Belize on different levels, one of them being the ability of our postal service to enable the export given the way that tariff applies. I think there is work being undertaken by the postal service to look at how it can accommodate those parcels being exported, but it will take some time because the expectation from the U.S. authorities is that Belize will collect the tax on their behalf and remit that tax. That is easier said than done. But that is a reality of another jurisdiction, not us, that we have to find ourselves working with. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. is our largest trading partner and we have to look at how, bot on import and export basis, how we conduct business seamlessly.”