Goodbye to cheap china postage?

[wildwanderer]

Apparently, the US got upset that Chinese shippers were paying a heavily reduced rate for shipping due to postal agreements that hadn’t been updated since the 1960s. Chinese shippers (due to their 'developing economy' status) paid A$7.50 to ship across the US. US based shippers paid A$30

So a new agreement is being drawn up allowing receiving postal services to charge their own inbound rates. Those with 75,000 tonnes per annum of received postal items from next July. Everyone else from 2021.

According to this article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... deal-trump

'Once a country declares their rate, exporting countries will have to factor that cost; it means that cost will be transferred to the person sending that item ... When you are in a country and you buy items overseas, the end-customer will definitely have to pay a higher price.“

I’m going to miss receiving free postage for ebay $5 items shipped from China. How that was ever economical is beyond me.

[Warin]

I’m going to miss receiving free postage for ebay $5 items shipped from China. How that was ever economical is beyond me.

It wasn't. Some of mine have been less than $5..

There is a 5 year period of adjustment.. so it won't be sudden.

[michael_p]

Watched a video about how China was still considered a Level 3 (? maybe category 3, can't remember exactly) economy for the purposes of international postage agreements. As a result they get cheap rates from countries like us (we are Level 1 apparently). Which basically means we have been subsidising their postage system for years.

The question that is prompting action by certain nations is can China be considered a developing nation any more? Many think it is not and is gaining an unfair advantage under current trade agreements.

Cheers,
Michael.

P.S. If I can find the video on YouTube again I will post it here.

[Petew]

Postage should go up in price, environmentally wise. As much as it pains me to say it.

[Gadgetgeek]

More tit-for-tat that makes us all pay. The thing is that "government" postal services are the only thing keeping the courier services in line as far as pricing and services go. Should some postage cost more? Sure, and we also probably ship more crap than we actually need to. But we live in a global world, and so many distribution companies rely on boarders and the added markup to make things work. So I have the choice, grey import something, pay the distributor exclusive mark-up, or buy the cheap crap. Ah the joy of complex systems and their interactions. The alternatives are the "Postage paid on delivery" of long ago, and I think we can all agree that we don't want that.