Dear Industry Member:
The news earlier this week that the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a 192-country body that ensures the sortation and delivery of mail over international borders, agreed to allow governments to set their own postage rates for internationally-delivered shipments is good for our industry. The deal allows the US Postal Service to self-declare its rates starting next July.
As ACMA President Hamilton Davison told Multichannel Merchant earlier this week, many American companies, including a number of ACMA members, have for years gotten the short-shrift on international postage due to a disparity in shipping of 4.4-lb. packages or lighter from China. That problem has at last been solved.
The ACMA had been speaking up about this disparity for the past several years in Washington, but had largely fallen on deaf ears. Then nearly a year ago the White House threatened to leave the UPU, because the UPU allowed for lightweight packages coming from foreign nations, notably China, to be shipped into and across the US at rates cheaper ($1.50) than the USPS charges domestically.
We are very pleased at the outcome, as is Postmaster General Megan Brennan. The US’s ploy to pull out of the UPU proved successful. As UPU Director General Bishar Hussein noted in announcing the agreement on Wednesday, the international mail system would have been badly disrupted if the US left the UPU because every country would have had to reach a deal on delivery charges with the US.If ACMA members have any questions about how this development affects your business, feel free to reach out to me.
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