UPU Emergency Meeting Seeks to Stop Trump Administration from Abruptly Ending Int’l Mail Delivery
… the breakdown of the UPU/U.S. relationship. As always, we’re trying to keep our customers a few steps ahead, especially when it comes to the ever-changing landscape of e-commerce shipping.”
For now, the world waits to see if Trump, now facing an impeachment inquiry, will carry through with his threat to withdraw the U.S. from the UPU over its rules that restrict rate increases he has said he wanted to impose on China and other countries. However, the U.S. indicated Tuesday that it may accept one of the UPU’s options that are currently on the table.
“Option B, I would say, is the preferred option for the United States. It would mean that every country has their own rates and the current system will fall. It will be everybody for themselves. It will mean bilateral arrangements,” explained Hussein.
Option B, which would allow countries to self-declare their rates from 2020, was rejected, with 78 countries voting against the proposal, 57 voting in favor and nine abstaining.
“But in a multilateral system like this, they do recognize that there are also other parties who are also members of the network. So, we have to find something that’s also comfortable for them. In my view, Option C was developed really to bridge the different extremes,” he added.
The Congress will resume to vote on Option C at 9 a.m. Geneva time Wednesday. That option would accelerate rate increases under the current remuneration methodology. It calls for phasing in optional self-declared rates between 2021-2025. However, if that proposal fails, then countries will vote on the proposal “closest to the status quo,” which is known as Option A. In that option, the current rate structure would continue “with accelerating planned rate increases aimed at moving all countries into a single rate system in 2020.”
President Trump has expressed similar desires for postal rate hikes inside the U.S. as well. Last December, he voiced outrage at Amazon’s shipping deal and by April a Trump-ordered review of the USPS was underway.
“Postal Service experts and even Mr. Trump’s own advisers have privately urged him to back off the accusations, noting that the huge number of packages shipped by Amazon is actually helping to keep the Postal Service financially solvent,” reported the New York Times.
Trump has repeatedly tweeted against Amazon, and subsequently its deal with the postal service, after being angered by negative reports about him in the Washington Post. He tends to use the hashtag #AmazonWashingtonPost in such tweets and often blasts Jeff Bezos, who owns both companies, which casts suspicions on his reasons to raise shipping rates specifically on Amazon.
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