Duty Collection for Domestic Mail Arriving From Certain Insular Possessions and Territories
Key claim: The Postal Service is revising Domestic Mail Manual section 608 to require customs clearance and prepayment of applicable duties, taxes, and fees for certain goods mailed from American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands into the U.S. customs territory.
Abstract
(Rule · Postal Service) The Postal Service is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM[supreg]), section 608, to provide instructions for customs clearance and the prepayment of applicable customs duties, taxes, and fees for certain goods mailed from American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands destined to the customs territory of the United States (CTUS), which is defined in 19 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 101.1 as the fifty States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Why this matters
The revision closes a customs gap by requiring duties, taxes, and fees to be prepaid on dutiable goods mailed from U.S. insular possessions into the customs territory, affecting small exporters in the territories and consumers who order from them. Combined with the broader postal de minimis suspension, it signals a systematic tightening of duty collection at the postal channel, with cost and processing implications for both senders and recipients.