Free tools for Deutsche Post shippers to meet new U.S. product data requirements

Because the postal channel is being brought in line with commercial shipping. Importers using commercial carriers have supplied this kind of product detail for years, while postal parcels moved under a simpler process that did not ask for it.

Three changes closed that gap:

• Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum began applying to postal shipments on July 24, 2026, and the rate depends on where the metal was originally made.
• U.S. agency data: starting January 20, 2027, postal shipments of products regulated by U.S. agencies such as the FDA and CPSC must be filed electronically, with the data those agencies require.
• Free trade agreements became available to postal parcels under $2,500 USD for the first time, and claiming a rate requires supporting documentation.

Nothing about your products has changed. What changed is how much detail U.S. entry asks for when a parcel arrives by post.

No. Deutsche Post supports more than one way of supplying the data the U.S. requires, and your Deutsche Post representative can explain the alternatives.

A Verified Account is worth choosing when you ship the same products repeatedly. Because the details and documents are stored against the product rather than the shipment, you provide them once and they apply to everything you send afterward.

There is no subscription fee, and no cost to use the account, your Catalog, Zonos Agency Check Zonos AI, Zonos Clarify Zonos AI, or document uploads. Everything in the account is included.

You do not have to work it out. Upload your products and your Catalog flags the ones that need attention, with the reason attached—melt and pour data, or FDA details.

This is the main reason to create the account early: until your products have been assessed, you will not know how much of your range the new requirements actually touch.

It depends on how your products got into your Catalog.

If you connected a channel, Zonos matches the shipment to your synced catalog by tracking number, so the names do not have to match.

If you uploaded by CSV, the goods description is what connects the shipment to your Catalog. The product name has to match it exactly—same wording, same abbreviations, no extra or missing characters. If you find a mismatch, correct the product name in your Catalog to match what your shipping system actually sends. Otherwise the shipment is handled as though you never provided the extra information.

Copy it from step 3 of the setup steps on your Dashboard home page. It already includes the Z- prefix and is formatted exactly as you need it, so paste it without any changes into the Customs Sender Reference field of your Deutsche Post shipment data, for example Z-organization_1a1a1a1a1a1a1. Or store it once in your DHL Business Customer Portal settings for all U.S. shipments.

Yes, using Zonos Sync. Etsy, eBay, Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce (Magento), Wix, Amazon, and BigCommerce are ready, with more coming soon.

Zonos Sync pulls your products and orders into your Catalog automatically and keeps it current as you add and change products. CSV upload works for any platform, and it is the route to use if yours isn't connected yet.

Starting with a CSV is not wasted work either—products you upload keep their details if you connect a store later.

Clarify Zonos AI identifies the additional product-specific details a given item is required to provide, and asks you for them.

That is the gap it fills. Requirements sit with different U.S. agencies and vary product by product, so checking a whole catalog yourself is a slow job—which is why most shippers are supplying nothing, not because they are unwilling. Clarify Zonos AI works it out per product: a cosmetic draws FDA questions, a children's toy draws CPSC questions about materials and small parts.

It also infers the likely answers from the product information you already have, so you can move through a lot of products quickly—reviewing what Zonos proposes and correcting anything that needs it before you submit, instead of selecting every answer for every product. Every answer is saved to the product and reused.

You can upload certificates of origin, metal origin documentation for Section 232 (country of melt and pour for steel, country of smelt and cast for aluminum), and free trade agreement documentation.

For goods shipped from Germany, the agreement that applies is the Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), for qualifying goods made in Australia.

Documents can be attached at the organization level or linked to specific products, so one certificate can cover everything it applies to.

It depends on the agreement's shipping rule. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, called CUSMA in Canada), the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), and the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement require goods to both originate in and ship from the partner country. Goods can pass through another country on the way to the U.S., such as during transloading or transshipment, as long as they remain under customs control there. Goods stored in or shipped from a warehouse in another country have typically been released from customs control, so they no longer qualify. That means these agreements can't be claimed on goods shipped from Germany, even if the goods were made in Canada, Mexico, Korea, or Israel.

The Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) works differently. Goods that originate in Australia can still qualify when they ship from another country, as long as they aren't processed, repackaged, or otherwise altered there beyond what's needed to transport them. For example, AUSFTA can be claimed on an Australian-made good that ships from Germany.

A partner government agency (PGA) is a U.S. agency other than CBP with authority over what may be imported—the FDA for food, drugs, and cosmetics, the CPSC for consumer products, and others.

Commercial shipments have filed PGA data electronically for years. Starting January 20, 2027, postal shipments under a PGA's jurisdiction must be filed the same way, through Entry Type 13. That means a regulated product may need additional data before it can be entered.

It is where the metal in a product was originally made, which is frequently not the country the finished product was made in. Steel uses the country of melt and pour. Aluminum uses the country of smelt and cast. Copper reporting begins July 30, 2026.

Reporting it is mandatory on goods subject to Section 232, and the cost of not having it is severe: aluminum declared with an unknown country of smelt or cast is charged 200%, the rate applied to Russian metal.

It is also worth knowing that Section 232 duty is charged on the full customs value of an article, not on the value of the metal inside it—that changed on April 6, 2026. So this data is not about shrinking the amount that gets taxed; it is about not being charged a punitive rate, and about qualifying for lower tiers where you can. Recording it once, per product, means every shipment carries the right answer.

January 20, 2027 is the date to have the extra information complete for the products that need it, but treat it as a backstop rather than a target.

Two parts of this pay off right now regardless. Section 232 tariffs have applied to postal shipments since July 24, 2026, and trade agreement claims are available today. Both depend on data you would otherwise be adding in October anyway.

The Zonos support team is available 24/7 at :e-mail: support@zonos.com.