From Military.com:
“Treaty Deal Averts Military Mail
Disruption but Cost of Shipping Overseas Likely to Rise”
The military mail system no
longer faces imminent disruption, but service members may find increased costs
to mail packages to and from overseas locations in the wake of new reforms. The
White House announced Wednesday the United States will remain in a 145-year-old
international postal treaty that President Donald Trump had threatened to leave
by next month if changes were not made in how global price rates are set. The
treaty governs postage rates for letters and packages mailed throughout the
world. U.S. negotiators hammered out a compromise deal during an emergency
meeting of treaty members held this week in Geneva, Switzerland, that gives the
U.S. Postal Service flexibility in setting postage rates for incoming
international mail. The Trump administration announced last year that America
would withdraw from the Universal Postal Union treaty over growing complaints
by some U.S.-based businesses that packages sent to the U.S. from other
countries -- primarily China -- have much lower postal rates than packages
mailed domestically. In some cases, that meant a domestic U.S. business paid
more to mail a package across the U.S. than China was paying to ship all the
way to America. The Geneva meeting resulted in an agreement by a majority of
the treaty members "to adopt a comprehensive set of reforms based on the
U.S. proposal," Peter Navarro, director of the White House's Office of
Trade and Manufacturing Policy, told reporters during a conference call
Wednesday from Geneva. The agreement gives the U.S. the ability to raise the
postage prices for packages arriving from other countries. "This is the
linchpin of President Trump's objective," Navarro said. The U.S. Postal
Service said in a statement Wednesday that it would be allowed to alter its
rates beginning in July. The agreement allows other countries to change their
rates in phases over the next six years, the statement said. The agreement also
supports development of advanced electronic customs data transmission to
enhance safety and security, Navarro said. "This agreement will also
transform an antiquated, discriminatory system into a modern and resilient one
far more prepared to meet the new demands of the e-commerce and the increasing
challenges of counterfeit goods and drugs, such as fentanyl, now being pushed
like poison through the international mail system," he said. Asked whether
consumers would pay more for shipping under the reforms, Navarro was oblique. "In
America, we look at the whole package -- consumers, workers, manufacturers and
the economy," he said, emphasizing the "great savings" the U.S.
Postal Service would achieve by not subsidizing shipping from other countries. Later
in the conference call, Navarro said: "We don't anticipate any significant
price issues at all." CNBC reported that the changes would primarily
affect international letters and packages under 4.4 pounds -- a category that
takes in military mail and absentee ballots. Experts in international shipping
have estimated shipping prices could rise anywhere from 125% to 600%, CNBC
reported. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank,
had been among those raising alarm about the effects on absentee ballots in the
event the U.S. withdrew from the treaty. "More than 3 million American
citizens living and serving overseas are eligible to vote, and most who vote
return their ballots through the physical mail stream," the policy center
said in a news release last week. "They already face obstacles such as
transport time and distance, unreliable mail service, and censorship from
foreign governments." Navarro said U.S. officials "were absolutely
prepared to deliver military mail, holiday mail and voting mail" without
disruption even if America had withdrawn from the treaty. With the new
agreement, he said, "nobody will notice anything except over time we'll
see a stronger, more stable U.S. postal system."
^ It is one thing for ordinary
Americans in the US to have to pay higher prices to mail or receive things
internationally and another thing entirely for US soldiers and their families stationed
overseas to have to do the same. The main difference is that the majority of
the soldiers and their families were forced to move outside the United States (on
official Government orders) and many of those are in active warzones. These men
and women had no choice. They are also risking their lives to protect every American
back home. The least the US Government, the USPS, the US Military, Trump,
Congress, etc. can do is make it so that people with APO/FPO military addresses
receive special protections so that their mail costs don’t rise – even if it
does for those back in the States. I lived in West Germany and in Germany and
used an APO address. I have also sent mail in the very recent past to APO
addresses and I worked one Summer at a US Military Post Office in Germany so I
have seen the ins and the outs. I know what it’s like to be dependent on letter
and packages from the US. I also know how mail gets from the US to the US
Military Post Office overseas (well except for those going to a warzone since I
never personally experienced that.) Even if the US Government has to make a law
that puts a cap on how much a certain weight package going to an APO/FPO address
should cost and any amount over that cap the US Government pays the difference
on – rather than the soldier and his/her family – then that needs to be done
before July 2020 when the prices will rise. ^
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