Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Earlier today, Bloomberg's Romaine Bostick was joined by DHL Group
Speaker 2: CEO doctor Tobias Meyer here on Bloomberg.
Speaker 3: We shouldn't forget the benefits of trade and that it
Speaker 3: has helped to curb inflation. It makes goods more widely available.
Speaker 3: It helps us in different countries to participate in technological progress.
Speaker 2: Not every nation is able to do a.
Speaker 3: Big plant of semiconductors or develop vaccines, develop medical devices.
Speaker 2: So the world needs trade also, the US needs trade.
Speaker 3: The second point on the discussions of trade imbalances, we
Speaker 3: also have services, and that's often forgotten. Europe is importing
Speaker 3: a lot of services and these are very profitable for
Speaker 3: US companies, so I think that's important to keep in
Speaker 3: mind as well. The US is a highly beneficiary of
Speaker 3: open services trade, so we should not only focus on
Speaker 3: good now. If we look at goods, there was quite
Speaker 3: some termol. I think the biggest operational impact was the
Speaker 3: four day pausing on the Deminimus, which was then withdrawn
Speaker 3: again because it led to chaos at many US ports
Speaker 3: of entry. We had our challenges, but US customs also
Speaker 3: had its challenges. It's nearly doubling the number of entries required.
Speaker 3: Nobody was really prepared for it because it wasn't clear
Speaker 3: the instructions came out after the effective date, and that
Speaker 3: is truly causing a lot of headaches for our customers
Speaker 3: and is causing a lot of work in our operations
Speaker 3: to adjust to these ever changing requirements, especially on such
Speaker 3: short notice.
Speaker 1: So just to be clear, though, do you pick up
Speaker 1: business as a result of that, meaning at least on
Speaker 1: the consulting side and the logistics side, does that actually
Speaker 1: aid you that type of disruption.
Speaker 3: I think we are structurally very well positioned in this market.
Speaker 3: We are structurally well positioned because of our market share
Speaker 3: in many US related lanes isn't that big. We are
Speaker 3: very strong in Asia, Middle East, Africa, so these are.
Speaker 2: Our real strongholds.
Speaker 3: Also for DHL Express as it relates to the US,
Speaker 3: it's just so regrettable. It's not really adding efficiency to
Speaker 3: our operations and not adding efficiency to our customer operations.
Speaker 3: So we gain new business, we do more customs filings,
Speaker 3: for instance, So it's not necessarily bad for US, but
Speaker 3: I think overall these disruptions are not good for the
Speaker 3: economic development and the building of wealth with people.
Speaker 1: It's this deminimous rule is reinstate. If that exemption is
Speaker 1: indeed taken away and the Trump administration revisits that, is
Speaker 1: that going to affect your package volumes or were you
Speaker 1: already sort of above that in the way that you
Speaker 1: consolidate it stuff onto your planes.
Speaker 3: So indeed, our exposure to those deminimus shipments is relatively low.
Speaker 3: We have some in our express network, also in our
Speaker 3: global forwarding network, but mainly what we do in the
Speaker 3: space of e commerce is domestic distribution as well in
Speaker 3: Europe and in good partnership with the USPS, the United
Speaker 3: States Postal Service also in the US. I do think
Speaker 3: and we understand that the administration might want to alter
Speaker 3: the minimus. Europe has also done so with de facto
Speaker 3: don't have a real deminimus anymore. We have a simplified
Speaker 3: filing procedure, but for every shipment you need to pay
Speaker 3: import VAT. So there are transitions possible to apply sensible
Speaker 3: rules to also create income for the state.
Speaker 2: But it's just good to do it in an orderly fashion.
Speaker 1: What is your relationship with the US Postal Service right now?
Speaker 1: Are they still your last mile provider?
Speaker 3: Yes, they are exclusive last mile provider. It's something that
Speaker 3: I think benefits the United Postal Service greatly because we
Speaker 3: deliver volume into that network. It's mainly domestic volume that
Speaker 3: comes from American merchants, particularly many as aes who sell online.
Speaker 1: Given the political climate, do you worry at all about
Speaker 1: maintaining that relationship.
Speaker 2: Look, it would not be rational to change that.
Speaker 3: The United States Postal Service, and we understand I think
Speaker 3: that better business better than most because we are in
Speaker 3: that very same position in our own country in Germany
Speaker 3: that we need to provide a universal service to all
Speaker 3: citizens and have obligations.
Speaker 2: That are quite costly to do so.
Speaker 3: So we sympathize with the position and the difficulties that
Speaker 3: the United States Postal Service has. We can be helpful
Speaker 3: to help bring volume into that network. We do not
Speaker 3: cherry pick, which has been criticism with some other players
Speaker 3: that depending on the type of ship and or depending
Speaker 3: on the season, you put it in your own network
Speaker 3: or you then when it's not profitable or you don't
Speaker 3: have the capacity in your own network, then you use
Speaker 3: the United States Postal Service. That is an arbitrage that
Speaker 3: I think, for good reasons, is looked upon very critically,
Speaker 3: but we are not doing that.