The Dutch cabinet is considering introducing an import tax on all packages that come to the Netherlands from outside the EU, ending the current exemption for parcels valued at below €150.

The measure would appear to be focused on Chinese webshops such as Shein AliExpress and Temu, which benefit from the lack of import duty and account for millions of parcels a year, news radio station BNR reported on Tuesday.

A finance ministry spokesman told the broadcaster that the Netherlands would support EU plans to take steps. The Financial Times reported on July 2 that the European Commission is also looking into imposing import taxes on all packages from outside the EU.

“Chinese firms don’t meet all the EU rules which European webshops have to comply with,” Jesse Weltevreden, a lecturer in online entrepreneurship at Amsterdam’s hbo college told broadcaster NOS. “This is unfair and it is right that the government acts.”

AliExpress has been designated a “very large online platform” by Brussels which means its has to meet certain legal requirements from September.

The regulations focus on the “particular risks such large services pose to Europeans and society when it comes to illegal content, and their impact on fundamental rights, public security, and wellbeing”.

Last year, consumers in the Netherlands placed almost nine million orders at Chinese webshops, according to sector association Thuiswinkel.nl. That is a rise of 39% on 2022.

John Lin, an expert in Chinese e-commerce, told NOS that taxing a €2 cable would add 40 cents to the price and that is unlikely to have an impact considering “the same product costs €10 to €15 in the Netherlands”.

Chinese webshops benefit from a more efficient business model without importer, distributor and shop workers, he said.