Has the EU parcel duty already slowed non-European traffic at Liège Airport?

Liège Airport recorded an almost 4% year-on-year decline in cargo traffic from 1 to 5 July 2026, immediately after the European Union imposed a €3 customs duty on low-value goods imported from outside the bloc. The figures, first reported by L-Post and subsequently cited by Belgian media, provide the first measurable sign in Belgium that the new charge may be influencing the vast stream of e-commerce goods entering Europe through Liège.

For Belgian consumers, the change means many purchases worth no more than €150 from non-EU sellers can now cost more. For Wallonia, it raises a different question: whether an EU measure intended to protect consumers and European retailers will reduce activity at one of the continent’s leading cargo airports. Liège Airport itself urged caution, saying five days of data were insufficient and that a full month would be needed before drawing conclusions.

The distinction between parcels and items matters. Since 1 July, the previous customs-duty exemption for consignments worth up to €150 has disappeared. Under Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382, a temporary duty of €3 applies per declared item or tariff category, rather than automatically once per package. Belgium’s Federal Public Service Finance illustrates the rule with a parcel containing trousers, shoes and earrings: because those belong to three categories, the duty can total €9.

FPS Finance says e-commerce platforms are expected to collect the duty and VAT at checkout in roughly 95% of cases. If they do not, a carrier may collect the taxes and add clearance costs when the shipment enters Belgium. Gifts sent between private individuals retain separate exemptions under certain conditions, so the measure does not cover every package arriving from outside the EU.

The European Commission presents the duty chiefly as a question of fairness and safety. It says 5.9 billion low-value items entered the EU from third countries in 2025, while the former exemption gave overseas sellers an advantage and helped unsafe, counterfeit or undervalued goods reach consumers. Belgian customs administrator-general Kristian Vanderwaeren supplied a stark local illustration in March: about 30% of goods selected for inspection at Liège were non-compliant, although customs could physically check only a tiny fraction of the overall flow.

Liège is particularly exposed because it has become a major European gateway for Asian e-commerce. The airport says more than 1.35 billion e-commerce parcels passed through its facilities in 2025, when total freight reached approximately 1.325 million tonnes. Its business was still expanding before the duty took effect: first-half 2026 tonnage rose 11.3% year on year to 697,816 tonnes, according to figures reported by Transportmedia. That strong starting point makes the early July dip notable, but not yet evidence of a lasting reversal.

Airport spokesperson Christian Delcourt had already warned that platforms could reorganise their logistics, perhaps shifting some goods from aircraft to ships or importing bulk stock into EU warehouses before making domestic deliveries. He nevertheless preferred an EU-wide system to Belgium’s earlier proposal for a national €2 handling charge, because a uniform duty reduces the incentive to divert flights from Liège to airports in neighbouring countries.

University of Antwerp transport economist Roel Gevaers offers another qualification: he has argued that the duty may do little to curb the broader advance of Chinese platforms such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress. Those businesses can absorb part of the cost, consolidate orders or alter supply chains. A drop at Liège could therefore represent rerouting or repackaging rather than a comparable decline in European demand.

The first figures consequently support only a narrow conclusion: traffic weakened during the duty’s opening days. Neither Liège Airport nor Belgian customs has published evidence establishing how much of that movement was caused by the charge, and comparable data for a complete month, individual parcel counts and competing European gateways remain unavailable. Those are the figures to watch next. The EU duty is scheduled to remain until July 2028, while a separate Union handling fee could arrive from November 2026 at the earliest, giving platforms, consumers and Liège’s logistics sector further reason to adapt.