Thailand’s Cabinet approved charging the full customs tariff, capped at 30%, on goods ordered from overseas e-commerce platforms and shipped by express delivery or international mail, which overrides a Customs Department notice that had cut or waived duty on those parcels. Headphones rise from 10%, sunglasses from 5% and jewelry from zero, all to 30%. The Customs Department will collect the duty at checkout or when a parcel arrives, using data that platforms share with it, and expects the rules to take effect early next year once they’re published in the Royal Gazette. The government says the change will help local small businesses, which carry tax, labor and product-standard costs, compete with cheap imports, and it expects the higher duties to bring in about 6.3 billion baht.
