The vast warehouse is almost silent, save for the rumble of planes landing and taking off from the nearby runways at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) in Val-d’Oise, north of Paris. Under the harsh glare of the neon lights, the space is empty, where just weeks ago, stacks of cardboard boxes reached towards the ceiling.
Activity at the warehouse, operated by one of the airport’s customs brokerage firms, came to a standstill on March 1, coinciding with the implementation of a new tax on imported small parcels. The levy of 2 euros per item category applies to the millions of products shipped from Asia and sold at low prices on platforms like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress. The government views the tax as a measure to “combat unfair competition” from e-commerce giants.
