The special Universal Postal Union congress has planned meetings at Geneva during September 24-26. This came at the time when the US President Donald Trump threatened to pull America out of the UPU deal stating that postal carriers like China are not making enough payment in order to foreign shipments delivered to the US recipients. The complaint by the US President is based on the reimbursement that the US Postal Services gets by providing the final delivery of big letters and small parcels that are sent from foreign countries. They are the ones that are usually with less than 2 kgs of weight. They may comprise expensive items such as mobile phones, memory sticks or pharmaceuticals. The issue has been missed by most consumers.

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UPU’s 'distorted system'

The US management has complained that countries such as China and others get the benefit of paying lower reimbursements only for the reason that they come under the category of developing countries. This puts American companies at a disadvantage. The administration wants the USPS to have its own rates set-up as soon as possible.

“Today, manufacturers in countries as small as Cambodia and as large as China pay less to send small parcels from their countries to New York than U.S. manufacturers do to ship packages from Los Angeles to the Big Apple,” Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote in an international publication on September 11. He said other countries like Canada, Norway, and Brazil are also losing money from the UPU’s “distorted system”. He also added that the US is against one of the three options that are into consideration as it would limit the amount that postal systems such as the USPS can charge the shippers who go abroad.

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Shipping prices to cost more

Kate Muth, the executive director of the International Mailers Advisory Group, which counts companies like eBay, DHL, Amazon, USPS or their affiliates as members said, “Whatever happens, prices to ship via the postal network ... It’s going to cost more,”. He also said that the prices are going to rise. The companies will not have to make a decision independently on how to manage the rise of prices. This can happen either by eating up the prices or putting them on the customer's head. The grassroots network of eBay has alerted of possible disruption of services and also the prices rising for shipping through US Postal Service if Trump pulls the US out.

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(With Inputs from AP)