U.S. Threat to Withdraw From Postal Treaty Prompts Emergency Talks [View all]

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Source: NYT

The Trump administration, angry over lower postal rates for China, may leave a longstanding international shipping agreement.

GENEVA — Emergency talks began on Tuesday as delegates from nearly 150 countries tried to prevent a massive disruption to international postal services that could occur if President Trump pulls America out of a United Nations body that has regulated mail services for more than a century.

The United States has threatened to leave the body, the Universal Postal Union, after Oct. 17 if its members don’t change the system of fees that postal services charge for collection and delivery of mail and small parcels.

Of particular concern to the Trump administration is the sliding scale of fees that allows China, the world’s second largest economy, to take advantage of lower rates that are available to developing countries. Those fees, which have been in place since 1969, were modified and partly raised in 2016, but the administration has argued the changes did not go far enough.

As a result, it remains cheaper for manufacturers in countries like China and Cambodia to send a small package to the United States than it is for American businesses to ship them from Los Angeles to New York, according to Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Mr. Trump.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/business/universal-postal-union-withdraw.html