Virgin Islanders have fumed about federal changes to customs fees enacted last year that many said disproportionately harmed the mail-dependent island territory. Government House collected those concerns and shared them with the White House this week, according to a statement released Thursday.
Government House collected roughly a dozen firsthand accounts from Virgin Islands residents and businesses detailing the impact of changes to the de minimis exemption, requiring Americans to pay fees on almost all packages. The Virgin Islands is outside the U.S. customs zone, meaning, unlike the states and Puerto Rico, territorial residents were stuck paying taxes on all packages, not just those coming from foreign ports.
The comments, collected by the Bryan-Roach administration in March, described higher costs, shipping delays, added paperwork, and growing frustration Virgin Islanders faced when mailing and receiving packages through the U.S. Postal Service, according to a statement from Government House.
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said the goal was to get relief, possibly the exemption he sought in October, soon after President Donald Trump enacted the changes. USPS shipments between the Virgin Islands and the mainland should be treated as domestic for de minimis purposes, the statement said.
“Residents reported higher mailing costs, longer wait times, and procedural hurdles that fall especially hard on seniors, families, and small businesses. In some cases, added charges ranged from about $80 to $200 per shipment,” according to the Government House statement. “By gathering real accounts from residents and businesses, Government House was able to show the White House that a policy aimed at foreign shipments is instead creating hardship for Americans using domestic mail service in the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
Bryan said the policy was “unfair” and “must be corrected,” according to the written statement.
“This is a real burden falling on working families, seniors, and small businesses right here at home,” Bryan said.
Sudden changes to how packages were handled blindsided Virgin Islanders a year ago, when Trump decreed, then delayed, then re-implemented the policy that ended exemptions for items under $800 from all tariffs. More changes followed, including a rollout of a tax-estimating app that Virgin Islanders complained was clumsy at best, before the changes took their seemingly final form in August.
The White House claimed in July that ending the de minimis exemption was necessary, “closing the catastrophic loophole used to, among other things, evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products.”
The Government House press release said the Trump administration could target its goals without “an unintended burden from Virgin Islands residents and businesses.”
How to combat the tariffs has been a topic Congressional Delegate Stacey Plaskett has suggested the territory reexamine its position outside the customs zone, and Government House has countered that it wasn’t up to local leaders but those in Washington.
