Where to Find Country-Specific International Shipping Restrictions and Prohibitions
International shipping comes with many rules, regulations, restrictions, and prohibitions. Some of these restrictions and prohibitions are universal, meaning there are certain items that cannot be shipped anywhere. Others are specific to certain countries or regions. Where can you find these country-specific shipping restrictions and prohibitions?
Most countries in the world have a national postal service, either as a government agency or a state-owned enterprise. The exceptions are few: some very small countries or territories rely mostly on the postal systems of their neighbors, and some lack a national postal service due to political instability and/or lack of recognized sovereignty.
Each national postal service has an official website with all the relevant information for people who want to ship items to or from that country. This information should include a list of international shipping restrictions and prohibitions, including country-specific ones. The problem is that not all national postal service websites have an English-language international version. Most stick to their country’s primary language or languages, which makes them difficult to navigate, even with the help of Google Translate.
While checking the website of the destination country’s international postal service for shipping restrictions is an option if you know the language or if an English version is available, you should also be aware of the alternatives. Often, the easiest way to check country-specific shipping restrictions is to refer to the website of your chosen shipping carrier.
Most major carriers provide detailed information on shipping prohibitions, restrictions, and regulations for each country to which they deliver. For example, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has the Index of Countries and Localities with the Individual Country Listings (ICLs) arranged alphabetically. To find a country's shipping restrictions, go to the Index, find the country, and click on the number next to its name.
In addition to shipping restrictions and prohibitions, the ICLs contain information about customs duties, taxes, size and value limits, shipping insurance, and required customs forms. In other words, the ICLs provide all the information needed to successfully mail a package to a foreign country.
But what if you prefer private courier companies like UPS or FedEx? The shipping restrictions and regulations listed in the ICLs still apply, but it’s also a good idea to check the country-specific lists of prohibited and restricted items provided by your chosen carrier.
For example, UPS has a Country or Territory Regulations tool that you can use to find country- or territory-specific regulations. First, choose the origin and destination countries from the drop-down lists. Then, select the regulations you need to view, such as “Prohibited or Restricted Commodities” for shipping restrictions. Finally, click “Show Regulations”. FedEx has a page titled “Global Shipping Restrictions & Prohibited Items”, where you can select the destination country from a drop-down list to view its shipping prohibitions.
Some people try to cheat the system and ship prohibited items anyway, but it rarely works. In most cases, such packages are detained at customs and returned to the sender, or seized and destroyed. The recipient or sender may also be issued a fine. Criminally illegal items sent in the mail may result in legal repercussions for the sender and/or recipient, depending on the circumstances and nature of the item.