Flood of small parcels from China pushes Belgian airport’s capacity to limit
Belgium’s top customs official says main problem is that many products do not meet EU standards
More than 4 million small parcels from China have arrived at the freight airport in Liege, Belgium, every day since the beginning of the year. On the receiving end, the Belgian customs inspection team at the airport has only 80 members.
Belgium’s top customs official, Kristian Vanderwaeren, said the airport, close to the Netherlands, Germany and France, was built, in part, to cater to e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shein, Temu and Alibaba.
But the “explosion” in the number of small parcels from China being diverted to Europe since US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year was pushing the airport’s capacity to its limit, he said.
Vanderwaeren said the situation in Liege had further deteriorated after Italy and France introduced their own handling fees for small parcels this year, because more parcels were now being redirected to the Belgian airport to avoid those charges.