BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - A rip in the space-time continuum

[email protected]

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:00:07 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:16:59 -0700, wrote:

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:29:06 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:12:32 -0700, wrote:

So with the USPS running another loss this quarter, we are paying the
Chinese to ship their **** here??

It sure looks that way

Except that's not how it works, despite how it "looks."

Actually it is worse. I looked around a little and the best I can tell
we are still working under a Universal Postal Union treaty from 1991
where we collect postage for international shipments going out of the
country and people shipping into the country collect the postage on
that end. The receiving country carries the package internally for
free. The assumption is it will all come out in the wash.

We know the USPS has a significant charge for outgoing international
mail but it is unclear the chinese pay anything to ship things here.

Firstly, it's a treaty signed by which Republican president?

The original UPU treaty? Millard Fillmore.
There was a framework in place before the Civil War.

You quoted 1991. Which president was that?

Secondly,
we're not "paying" the Chinese to ship anything. We're honoring the
treating by carrying for free.

This was actually addressing a question of unfair trade practices. If
China is letting their manufacturers ship to the US virtually free and
we charge a much higher rate going to China that is not fair.

I agree. They also inflate their currency by something like 30%.

Thirdly, do you really believe that the
differential in cost is what is causing the USPS to have financial
problems? The USPS is perhaps the most efficient like service in the
world. They're not perfect, certainly, but they do a damn good job.

I like the USPS, they are better here than UPS and FedX
I do think they are taking a screwing with this "free" mail they have
to deliver.

I agree. I don't think the fix is a tariff or something like that,
however.

I believe it was GWB who decided to grant China most favored trade
status, which removed the annual review by Congress. Yet another of
his dubious policy decisions.