EU finance ministers on Thursday agreed to scrap a bloc-wide duty exemption on low-value orders from the likes of retail giants Temu and Shein to help tackle a flood of cheap Chinese imports.

Today, there is no levy on packages worth less than €150 (US$174) imported directly to consumers in the 27-nation bloc, in many cases via Chinese-founded platforms.

Member states including France and the EU executive hope the duty exemption can be done away with from the start of next year, rather than 2028 as proposed earlier this year.

The EU’s 27 member states will work on a “simple, temporary solution to enable earlier implementation,” an EU official said.

Ministers are due to discuss and approve a proposal during their next meeting on December 12.

France welcomed the ministers’ decision, saying its efforts to reach an agreement had “paid off”.

“This is a key step for the protection of European consumers and the internal market to fight more effectively to prevent dangerous products and those that do not comply with our European regulations entering,” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said.