Hong Kong’s postal service announced that it had halted item mail services by sea and will pause the acceptance of air postal items containing goods bound for the United States starting on April 27.
“For sending items to the US, the public in Hong Kong should be prepared to pay exorbitant and unreasonable fees due to the US’s unreasonable and bullying acts. Other postal items containing documents only without goods will not be affected,” the government of Hong Kong said in a statement released on Wednesday local time.
The government of the semi-autonomous Chinese city said the U.S. is “unreasonable, bullying and imposing tariffs abusively. Hongkong Post will definitely not collect any so-called tariffs on behalf of the US and will suspend the acceptance of postal items containing goods destined to the US.”
Hong Kong pointed to President Trump administration’s decision to suspend the “de-minimis” exemption “for postal items dispatched from Hong Kong to the US and increase the tariffs for postal items containing goods to the US starting from May 2.”
Hong Kong is facing the same tariffs as China. Trump has escalated the trade war against the world’s second-largest economy, slapping 145 percent tariffs. China has retaliated by imposing a 125 percent tariff.
The Hong Kong government also announced that it would contact senders of items that were not yet shipped to the U.S., saying it would “arrange for return of items and postage refund starting from April 22.”
