Hongkong Post announced earlier today that it would suspend the acceptance of surface mail parcels containing goods bound for the United States, with immediate effect.
The acceptance of air postal items containing goods bound for the US will also be suspended from 27 April onwards.
The postal service said it would contact senders of surface items that have not yet been shipped to arrange for a return and refund starting from 22 April.
[See more: Beijing suspends Boeing imports due to trade war: Bloomberg]
Postal items containing only documents will not be affected, it added.
The move comes in response to the US government’s earlier announcement that it would eliminate the “de minimis” exemption for postal items dispatched from Hong Kong to the US, and increase tariffs for packages containing goods starting from May 2, as part of Washington’s ongoing trade war against China,
The Hong Kong postal service called these actions “unreasonable” and stated that it would “not collect any so-called tariffs on behalf of the US,” and as such it would be suspending regular surface mail parcel services.
