BRUSSELS, May 21 (Reuters) - The European Commission is

set to propose a 2 euro ($2.27) handling fee for packages

ordered online and entering the European Union as part of

reforms of its customs system to handle the billions of incoming

parcels.

The Commission proposed in February removing the exemption

from duties on low-value consignments worth no more than 150

euros and said it would explore the possibility of an e-commerce

handling fee.

The proposal will need to be agreed by EU governments, which

have not yet discussed it, and the European Parliament.

The EU executive said the fee would cover work to ensure

compliance of the huge number of parcels with EU rules, such as

for toy safety, and be incurred by the online retailer, rather

than by customers at the point of delivery.

EU customs authorities handled some 4.6 billion low-value

parcels bought online or 12 million parcels per day, 91% of

which came from China, including retailers such as Shein and

Temu. The number of shipments was double that of 2023.

The Commission has put forward a proposed 2 euro handling

fee per parcel delivered directly to the customer or a smaller

50 cent fee for parcels coming from a warehouse within the EU.

"With 4.6 billion packages, you can't really have proper

controls and to introduce it costs a lot of money and therefore

it's fair to ask Alibaba ( BABA ), Temu or Shein to pay their fair share

of the cost," Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's

trade committee told reporters on Wednesday.

($1 = 0.8826 euros)