European textile industry federations have told Brussels that the tax now applied to small parcels remains inadequate, according to a report carried by FashionNetwork. The verdict lands directly on the tier of the supply chain that ships finished goods, largely apparel and textiles, directly to European consumers in consignments valued below customs de minimis thresholds.

The federations' position is straightforward: the current charge on low-value parcels does not do enough to correct the competitive distortion that direct-to-consumer imports have created for European producers and for importers who move goods through conventional, fully declared channels. Their complaint is aimed at the compliance architecture around small parcels, not at any single buyer or supplier.

For sourcing teams, the stakes are concrete. Direct-to-consumer shipping from non-EU production countries has grown into a high-volume lane that sits outside the standard tariff and declaration treatment applied to bulk apparel imports. European mills, garment manufacturers and brands that declare goods at the border, pay duties and meet product-compliance obligations argue they compete against parcels that arrive without equivalent friction.

The federations are not calling for the tax to be scrapped. They are calling it inadequate. That distinction matters for anyone modelling landed cost on e-commerce flows into the EU. If Brussels accepts the industry's assessment, the likely consequence is a further tightening of the rules around low-value consignments rather than a rollback — higher per-parcel charges, tighter enforcement, or a lower threshold at which full customs declaration kicks in.

For suppliers in Asia and elsewhere who serve European e-commerce demand with parcel-level fulfilment, the message is that the regulatory direction of travel is one-way. Compliance and logistics teams should treat the current regime as a floor, not a ceiling. Any sourcing or distribution model built on the assumption that small-parcel entry into the EU stays lightly taxed carries regulatory risk that now has an explicit industry lobby behind it.

European manufacturers, meanwhile, gain a documented advocacy position they can cite in commercial and policy discussions. The federations' statement gives buyers and retailers a named industry position to weigh when they assess where direct-to-parcel sourcing sits relative to conventional import programmes in their overall mix.

FashionNetwork's report did not carry the names of the individual federations, the specific tax rates under discussion, or a quantified assessment of parcel volumes, so those elements remain unconfirmed. Buyers and compliance leads should treat the detail of the federations' ask — the level at which they consider the tax adequate — as pending, not established.

What is established is the direction. Europe's textile industry bodies have put on record that the small-parcel tax, as it stands, does not rebalance the competitive position of European textile producers against low-value imports. The sourcing decision this forces is procedural: any brand or platform moving parcel-level goods into the EU should now stress-test its landed-cost and compliance model against a materially tougher small-parcel regime, and any European supplier should log this position as leverage in its own commercial negotiations.