Four thousand tonnes of freight in February, eight hundred in March. Between the two, a single date: March 1, 2026, the day the €2 tax on small extra-EU parcels came into force. It was enough to disrupt Paris-Vatry Airport in the Marne.
This tax, slipped into the 2026 budget, targets parcels under €150 imported from outside the European Union. Near Châlons-en-Champagne, the airport had built an almost unique specialization in France: hosting cargo planes from China loaded with shipments from Shein, Temu, and AliExpress. About 90% of its freight originated from these platforms.
The volume fell by 80% in one month.
- The €2 tax on small extra-EU parcels came into force on March 1, 2026.
- Vatry airport freight plunged by 80% in a month, from 4,000 to 800 tonnes.
- The tax brought in €2.3 million per month, about 14 times less than the initial target.
The platforms did not pay; they changed their route
A week after the tax took effect, a France Télévisions investigation showed that Chinese platforms were now routing through Belgium, where the tax does not exist. Tracing a small parcel ordered on Temu and intended for Paris indicated a landing at Liège airport. The parcels then arrive in France by road.
On the customer side, nothing changes. France Télévisions checked a €46 cart for four items, with no mention of the €2. The tax indeed applies only in France, which leaves platforms latitude to circumvent it.
On May 14, on France Inter, Fabrice Pauquet, the airport’s director, estimated an 75% drop in activity since March. That translates to 390 tonnes of goods fewer each week. Before March 1, 2026, the airport received up to seven cargo flights per week from China. The director laments that they are now “playing with scraps.”
Around fifty fewer cargo airplanes each week, at Roissy as well as at Vatry.
The phenomenon goes beyond Marne. Cargo flights from China decreased by 60% in a few weeks. In Parliament, a deputy reported a 92% drop in e-commerce customs declarations, with some clearance warehouses sometimes empty. He used these figures to speak of an unanticipated boomerang effect.
€250 million of public money, a tax that yields little
Paris-Vatry Airport had received €250 million in public investment. The departmental council is the operator, and has been seeking to detach itself for years. The sum was invested over time, not in one lump, but the contrast with what followed is striking.
The tax revenue remained well below expectations. The head of the Customs administration evaluated it at €2.3 million per month. The government’s initial target was about €400 million per year, roughly €33-40 million per month. At the pace observed, the tax would bring in around €28 million over a full year, roughly 14 times less than planned.
There was, however, a precedent in a neighboring country. Italy withdrew its tax on small parcels in March, two months after implementing it. According to Vatry’s director, this U-turn allowed Italians to recover all volumes lost in January and February.
The government, for its part, initially refused to retreat. The Commerce Minister’s circle said he would not yield to Shein. Meanwhile, the airport paid the human price: nearly 20 jobs cut at Vatry.
Suspended, the tax did not bring back the planes
On June 30, the suspension of the French tax, in force since March 1, was announced. It is to be replaced by a European tax, which should prevent detours to other airports.
The president of the departmental council, Jean-Marc Roze, saw it as good news. With a customs duty spread across all European countries, he hoped for fewer problems. He recalled that Vatry was the only airport applying this tax, and that many shippers and platforms had bypassed the airport. In his view, “this has caused a lot of harm.”
But the rebound has not happened. Planes are scarce: a few charter flights, sensitive freight, and automotive parts, according to the general manager of XCR Airport. Freight continues to arrive by road after landing elsewhere in Europe, a costly and paradoxical situation that still weakens the airport. Yet Roze reminded that the airport had doubled its volumes in 2025, before the tax, by pursuing parcels from China.
The European timetable is taking shape. According to Generation NT, new EU handling fees of €2 are to apply from November 1 to parcels imported from third countries. Nothing guarantees that this harmonization will bring Chinese freighters back to Vatry’s runways.
Sources: generation-nt.com | assemblee-nationale.fr | franceinfo.fr
