Australia Post is set to resume parcel deliveries to the United States and its territories after services were temporarily suspended.
Services are expected to resume on or before Sept. 25, allowing large and commercial parcels to once again be sent to the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.
The temporary halt to services came after the United States introduced its customs and import tariff changes, requiring Australia Post to develop a new system that could accommodate them.
The new system was developed in conjunction with Zonos, an authorised U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Universal Postal Union third-party provider.
Australia Post Business Contract and My Post Business customers will now be able to successfully meet the new rules, allowing deliveries to the United States and its territories to resume.
Under the current temporary changes, only small parcels that are gifts and valued at no more than A$100 can be shipped to the United States.
Australia Post Executive General Manager of Parcel, Post and eCommerce Services, Gary Starr, said the national postal service had worked to provide a return to services as quickly as possible.
“Along with more than 190 other postal providers internationally, we’ve been caught in a fast-moving situation not of our making,” he said.
“The real impact has been on our customers who export their goods to the U.S., accessing our cost-efficient postal service, so we’ve been working around the clock to find a solution.
“Our priority has always been to have a solution up and running as soon as possible, while keeping our customers updated and informed. We want to provide customers with as much notice as possible to prepare and facilitate their business planning.”
Starr said at present the date for the temporary halt to be lifted remains at Sept. 25, but will be brought forward if possible.
“If we are able to lift this earlier, we absolutely will,” he said.
Like many other international postal services, Australia Post also offers a commercial service outside of the traditional postal network for large export customers, which remains open.
Australia Post is working on a separate solution to allow customers to send parcels to the United States via the Post Office network.
