Two million packages arrive from China every day in Belgium, according to Comeos: “We import dangerous products without any control”

But it is above all the first two, Temu and Shein, which have exploded in recent months, in particular targeting a young audience with very low prices. “These platforms have almost doubled their business in one year.”develops Lora Nivesse, the spokesperson for Comeos. The two Chinese giants have notably carved out a major place for themselves in textiles or what we call “fast fashion”, cheap clothing intended to last a short time. “Of all the clothes ordered online in Belgium, 20% already come from Chinese merchants, the communicator alarms. This is more than what Belgian wholesalers sell (11%). Belgium is, after the Netherlands, the second largest importer country for e-commerce parcels in Europe. We have an astronomical quantity of products from Asia.”

Temu and Shein, the platforms that drive up the price of air freight: “We have never experienced anything comparable”

The secret of Chinese success is known: these platforms offer incredibly low prices with a striking quantity of products. For a few euros, you can buy pants, a dress, but also a drone, a potato peeler or even toys. Nothing seems to be missing. “Buy like a billionaire“, promises Temu. The prices are so cheap that it is not uncommon to pay more in delivery costs than for the product purchased. Even low price specialists, like Amazon or Bol, cannot keep up. However, the products sometimes come from the same Chinese workshops, but the platforms do not work at all in the same way.

No customs duties to pay

Amazon thus brings in entire stocks of goods – from China in particular – stores them in a hangar in Europe and then has them delivered to a Belgian individual, for example, as soon as their order is made. Which explains the speed of delivery from the American platform. Temu is only a platform for “putting people in contact” between Belgian or other customers and Chinese traders. It is therefore the latter who are responsible for delivering the package, with lead times often much longer (around ten days) than the other well-established “marketplaces” with us.

I think I’m about to lose my family and my business”: Temu sellers on the brink

This sales technique above all allows you to go under the radar of border controls and avoid customs duties. “Local traders who import, for example, 5,000 units of the same product in a single container must go through complex customs administration and pay full customs duties, continues Lora Nivesse. The products also have a high chance of being controlled. Which is not the case for these millions of individual packages arriving in Belgium“. Customs officers are literally drowning under this mass of packages. “Only 0.0005% of these packages can be inspected.” Result ? According to the inspection services, a produced on three of certain platforms does not comply with European CE standards, which constitutes a threat to health. We import dangerous products, not to mention all the counterfeits.”

“This must change”

The vast majority of these Chinese traders also pay no customs duties. “According to current European regulations, parcels of less than 150 euros are exempt from these duties. denounces Comeos. This must change. All packages, regardless of their value, must be treated equally”. In a letter addressed to Belgian parliamentarians and partners of the future Belgian government, 70 members (including Amazon and Bol) of Comeos, representing more than 100,000 employees, demand that the same rules be imposed on everyone.

The signatories denounce “unfair competition”. “Merchants who play the game end up with much higher costs than those who do not respect anything.. Among their demands are those to improve customs controls (“in the port of Antwerp, there is a 25% chance of control, while at Liège airport, it is almost zero”), that of imposing customs duties on parcels of less than 150 euros (“This will bring in public money.), to enforce “strictly” the new rules (DSA and DMA) for technological giants in Europe to Chinese platforms or to improve collaboration between States at the European level.

“A bad idea”

The non-food retail sector, which has already lost more than 4,000 jobs in Belgium since 2019, is warning consumers. “Obviously such low prices are very tempting, Lora Nivesse says. But buying on these platforms is a bad idea, not only for the planet – in terms of sustainability it’s catastrophic – but also for your wallet. According to the spokesperson, there is no miracle: when it is so cheap, the quality does not follow. “We see that a third of products from Asian platforms already arrive broken and another third break in the following days. It’s sometimes worth it to spend a little more money and be sure to keep a product for longer rather than buying junk that you’ll quickly throw away.”