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on steel and aluminum began applying to postal shipments on July 24, 2026, and the rate depends on where the metal was originally made.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 review, from bodies such as the FDA and CPSC, reaches postal shipments on October 22, 2026, and can start applying sooner.
• 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.

Nothing. There is no subscription fee and no per-shipment charge for the account, your Catalog, Zonos Agency Check Zonos AI, Zonos Clarify Zonos AI, or uploading documents. 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.

The shipment is handled as though you never provided the extra information, because nothing connects the shipped goods to the product you documented with Zonos.

The product name in your Catalog has to match the goods description you send with the customs data 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.

Directly under your store name, in the top-left corner of your Zonos Dashboard. Add it to your Deutsche Post shipment data in the customs reference of sender field with a Z- prefix, for example Z-123456.

Yes, using Zonos Sync. Etsy and eBay connections are available first, followed by Amazon, Shopify, BigCommerce, and more.

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.

Supported agreements at launch: USMCA, U.S.–Australia, U.S.–Korea, and U.S.–Israel.

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

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.

PGA review has applied to commercial shipments for years. As of October 22, 2026 it reaches the postal channel, which 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.

October 22, 2026 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. These requirements can start applying to your shipments before then.

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.