Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Sunday 9.2.2025

Chinese discount stores

This week’s news topic is Chinese discount stores.

Chinese online stores sell goods very cheaply. The quality and safety of cheap goods is often poor.

Cheap trade is also disrupting EU markets. The EU wants to restrict imports of cheap goods from China.

We will now tell you more about bargain shopping and the EU’s goals.

Shein and Temu products can be ordered using the app. The app also constantly suggests different products. Photo: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle

Shein and Temu

Shein and Temu are large Chinese discount online stores. They sell huge quantities of goods all over the world.

Shein sells clothes and shoes, for example.

You can also order clothes from Temu, but Temu sells more other goods, such as electronics, toys and tools.

The goods are really cheap. Many items only cost a few euros even though they are shipped from China to Finland.

The EU wants to intervene in the operations of Chinese discount stores because the growth of discount sales is causing problems.

Clothing and goods from discount stores do not meet EU regulations.

Products may contain harmful materials or toxic chemicals. Products may have structures or defects that make them dangerous.

The large growth of discount retail increases transportation, emissions and waste.

Last year, 4.6 billion parcels entered the EU, 90 percent of which were small packages from China.

Yle tested Shein products in a laboratory last year. For example, these products contained toxic substances. Photo: Antti Haanpää / Yle

The large number of cheap goods is hampering the operations of shops in EU countries.

This week, the EU Commission presented proposals with which it wants to reduce imports of cheap goods.

The intention is that VAT and other fees must be paid on all orders.

Other fees include product safety fees, waste fees, and recycling fees.

The intention is also to remove the customs threshold of 150 euros. Then, even all cheap goods will have to pay customs duties.

Currently, stores outside the EU have an advantage because they avoid many of the fees that other stores have to pay.

The Finnish Chamber of Commerce says that the EU Commission’s plan is good, but too slow.

It may take many years for the taxes and duties that the EU is planning to impose on discount stores outside the EU.

The Finnish Trade Federation also hopes for swift action, for example by controlling cheap imports.

The huge number of packages keeps Customs busy. Customs is unable to monitor all shipments.

Small packages of cheap goods are also coming to Finland in huge quantities. Photo: Marja Väänänen / Yle

The topic of the news week this time was Chinese discount stores.

The EU Commission wants to restrict the online sale of cheap Chinese products in EU countries.

Restrictive measures may include, for example, customs duties, taxes and environmental fees.

However, it may take many years for such payments to be introduced in the EU.