Free tools for PostNL 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on steel and aluminum began applying to postal shipments on July 24, 2026, and the rate depends on where the metal was originally made.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.

Yes, for shipments to the US and Puerto Rico you need a Zonos account. Zonos checks whether US Customs (CBP) and partner government agencies (PGA) require additional information for the products you send to the US or Puerto Rico. Your product data is also stored securely for future shipments. This helps prevent your shipment from being delayed or rejected at the border.

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.

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 the Netherlands, 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 the Netherlands, 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 the Netherlands.

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.

Aim for January 20, 2027. Having your product data in by then is what keeps your shipments clearing smoothly. It is not a hard cutoff, though — if it takes you longer, that is workable. Once email outreach is available, Zonos will email you when a shipment needs more information before an entry can be filed. The cost of waiting is that the parcel can sit in transit while that happens, which is why before January 20, 2027 is the better plan.

Go to zonos.com and click Sign in in the top right corner. Once you are signed in, click Dashboard in the top right corner.

Yes — postal shipments can use trade agreements for the first time, which for qualifying goods often means no duty at all. Set the country of origin on your products in your Catalog, and any item that could qualify is flagged as needing attention. Click into that item in your Catalog and add the information the agreement asks for, and the preferential rate is claimed on every shipment it covers. For goods shipped from the Netherlands, the agreement that applies is the Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), for qualifying goods made in Australia. The free trade agreements guide covers what each one requires.

Yes. Click into the item in your Catalog and scroll to the HS code section. You can edit both the universal 6-digit HS code and the U.S.-specific HTS code. The U.S.-specific code is what lets Zonos flag items that need attention, so it is worth setting. If you do not provide an HTS code, Zonos auto-classifies the item from its description — and you can always edit that classification.

A good description is short and specific — what the item is, what it is made of, and who it is for. "100% cotton t-shirt" classifies accurately; "shirt" is too vague, and a marketing paragraph from your website is too much. Do not let a brand name stand in for the substance: "Nike shirt" does not say what the shirt actually is. Shade names are worth leaving out as well — list "oatmeal" as a colour and you can end up with a code for cereal. Avoid emojis, mixed languages, and contradictory terms like "women's, children's" too. Descriptions matter because Zonos classifies from them when you have not supplied an HS code. See the quality descriptions guide for examples of good and bad descriptions.

Only two: a name, and either a SKU or a product ID. Everything else is optional — but two optional fields are worth filling in.

Country of origin feeds a number of U.S. duty rules — trade agreement claims and Section 232 metal tariffs are two examples. Leave it out and Zonos may not flag an item that should have been flagged, simply because the information to judge it was missing.

HS code is not required — Zonos auto-classifies from the name and description instead. That works well when your descriptions are specific, so if your product names are thin, either add the HS code yourself or improve the descriptions first.

See the CSV import guide for the full field list.

The Zonos support team is available to help at: support@zonos.com.