The praxeological view. A fee is normally payment for a service requested by whoever pays it. Here nobody requested it. The 2 euros are said to cover data checks, risk analysis, and customs controls. But the buyer wanted only a product, and the seller only to sell it to him; these checks are imposed by the Union, which charges them to people who cannot refuse them. What matters most, though, is where the burden falls. The same T-shirt, bought from an online shop in Athens or in Lyon, pays no such fee; bought from a shop outside the Union, it pays 2 euros, plus VAT on the 2 euros. A charge that falls only on imports and leaves domestic goods untouched is a tariff, whatever it is called. The policy of shielding domestic production from foreign competition in this way is called protectionism. Ludwig von Mises explains in Human Action that, to the buyer, a tariff is simply one more cost, like shipping:

“The truth is that individuals in their acting, in their capacity as producers and consumers, as sellers and buyers, do not make any distinction as between the domestic market and the foreign market. They make a distinction as between local trade and trading with more distant places as far as the costs of transportation play a role. If government interference, such as tariffs, render international transactions more expensive, they take this fact into account in the same way in which they pay regard to shipping costs.”

A “handling fee” works exactly like that: like a dearer postal service, only for parcels that come from outside.

Who pays? Formally, the declarant. But whoever hands over a tax is not necessarily the one who bears it; the burden is shifted, and here quickly, into the price or the shipping charge. Because the amount is fixed, it weighs most on cheap things: on a 4-euro item, 2 euros is half the price; on a 400-euro item, just half a percent. So it hits precisely the small, cheap purchases that help many households make ends meet. And the winners are easy to find: the competitors inside the Union, who now face dearer rivals. Mises, in the same work, says it plainly:

“Here again the most striking example is provided by protectionism. The imposition of a duty on the importation of a commodity burdens the consumers. But to the domestic producers it is a boon.”

Frédéric Bastiat satirized the protectionist argument as early as 1845, in Economic Sophisms, with “The Candlemakers’ Petition.” The candlemakers ask the Chamber of Deputies for a law obliging everyone to close their windows and shutters, to protect them from the unfair competition of a foreign rival who supplies light for free: the sun. The story is also on this site for children: “The Candlemakers’ Petition.” Bastiat takes the logic of protection to its end. If cheap foreign goods must be kept out because they harm domestic producers, then the sun, which gives its light for free, should be kept out first of all. The conclusion is absurd, and that shows the logic itself is wrong: cheapness is not a threat; it is a benefit to consumers. Bastiat also taught us to look at “what is seen and what is not seen” (for children: “The Broken Window”). What is seen is the customs revenue and the shops spared a competitor. What is not seen is the purchases that will not be made, the 2 euros that will not be spent on something else, the cheaper options lost to anyone who counts every euro. That is the opportunity cost of the measure, and it appears on no receipt. In The Law, Bastiat also offers a simple test:

“See whether the law takes from some persons that which belongs to them, to give to others what does not belong to them. See whether the law performs, for the profit of one citizen, and, to the injury of others, an act which this citizen cannot perform without committing a crime.”

No merchant in Europe could stand at the customs office and make every parcel of his competitors 2 euros more expensive. With the fee, the state does it on his behalf, and the merchant gains customers without even asking. The name “handling fee” changes the word, not the result: the tariff that isn’t called a tariff is paid like every tariff, by whoever buys.