Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a fantastic Planet Money episode about the Universal Postal Union[1] and why this is a problem. Basically, the UPU assumes that a country will send about the same amount of international mail that it receives. There may be an imbalance between any two countries, but in aggregate, it assumes that these imbalances will net out. Furthermore, the UPU sets rates based on the sending country's costs. Since China wa…
Does this also affect Europe? I remember that there was free or very inexpensive shipping from China to Spain.
However here in Norway VAT is being introduced on all packages now, which is going to cut Aliexpress down quite a bit. Previously it was duty free below €35 combined value & postage.