The Universal Postal Union has averted a threat of withdrawal from the United States. The committee wants to enable fast fee increases. A possible chaos in the shipment of goods shipments should therefore be avoided.
The 192 members of the organization unanimously agreed on a compromise in Geneva. Countries that receive a particularly large number of such programs - such as the US - can increase their fees more quickly than previously planned. This prevented the previous agreements of the Universal Postal Union, which regulates international postal traffic for 145 years.
Trouble about too low fees
The dispute over the charges concerned the sums paid by a sender country to the recipient country for the carriage of consignments. With the rapid growth in online retailing and millions of orders for small parts such as electronics or decorative items in China, the US had complained about the low fees China paid to the US Post for delivery.
The USA had threatened to withdraw from the organization if they did not get permission to increase the fees to China, for example, at its own discretion.
This tariff is based on a consensual agreement in the Universal Postal Union. There, China is one of the small and medium-income countries that pay significantly less than industrialized countries. The German industry association of online retailers also complained about this as an unfair competitive advantage for Chinese suppliers.
