Stepping into the trade war, Hong Kong said on Wednesday that its postal service will no longer send packages to the United States.
It is the city’s first move in a spiraling conflict between China and the United States that is reordering global shipping routes.
President Trump this month ordered the closure of a loophole that allowed retailers to send clothes and goods from China and Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, to the United States without having to pay tariffs. After that change takes effect on May 2, United States Customs and Border agents will begin to collect previously exempted tariffs on shipments worth less than $800.
Hongkong Post said it would immediately stop accepting surface postal items containing goods to the United States, and would stop taking airmail packages starting April 27. It said the action was in response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs on China, which are now 145 percent.
“The U.S. is unreasonable, bullying and imposing tariffs abusively,” the postal service said in a statement posted to the Hong Kong government’s website.
The postal service said it would contact senders who posted packages with goods that have not yet been shipped, to return the packages and refund their postage. Documents being shipped to the United States would not be affected.
“The public in Hong Kong should be prepared to pay exorbitant and unreasonable fees due to the U.S.’s unreasonable and bullying acts,” it said.
A trade war between the world’s two biggest economies escalated rapidly when President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese products from 54 percent to 145 percent. China, in response, hit back by hiking the levies on American goods to 125 percent and calling the Trump administration’s tariff policy economically meaningless and “a joke.”
Hong Kong, a former British colony that was promised a degree of autonomy after it was handed over to China, remains a separate customs territory and a free port where goods are exempted from duties. It has long trumpeted its status as a middle ground between China and the United States. But as the Trump administration’s tariff actions continue to roil China, Hong Kong risks being dragged firmly into China’s camp.
Hong Kong officials have become increasingly vocal about their frustration with the Trump administration, which sees the city as no different from the rest of China. During his first term, Mr. Trump determined that Hong Kong was “no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify preferential treatment.”
On Tuesday, a top Chinese official overseeing Hong Kong affairs said the Trump administration’s tariffs were “extremely shameless” and were trying to “take away Hong Kong’s life.”
“Let those peasants in the United States wail in front of the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization,” Xia Baolong, who is the director of China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said in a televised speech. It was a reference to a comment from the American vice president, JD Vance, that the United States borrowed and bought from “Chinese peasants.”
American and Chinese businesses have long used what was known as the de minimis exemption to ship goods worth less than $800 between the two countries. Some of that trade has crossed through Hong Kong, but the Hong Kong government has said the Trump administration’s concerns that it was a channel for the evasion of tariffs were “ungrounded.”
“Avoiding charging the U.S. fees and duties in Hong Kong preserves the city’s status as a free port,” said Ben Kostrzewa, a partner and trade expert at Hogan Lovells in Hong Kong. “But the suspension makes it more challenging for the trade and shipping businesses in Hong Kong.”
The value of goods shipped to the United States from Hong Kong totaled $34.8 billion and accounted for around 6.5 percent of the city’s total exports in 2023, according to government data. The United States is Hong Kong’s third-largest trading partner, with total trade between them amounting to $60.3 billion.
