Ebay wants to keep the Universal Postal Union. DO NOT BE FOOLED! This is BAD for US sellers!

[pangalactictrading]

USPS - High domestic postage rates are stifling American Businesses, particularly Small Businesses, and need to be dramatically lowered! Because of the current agreement, it is cheaper to ship from the other side of the world than from Elkhart to Goshen! Seriously: an item that costs me $3.86 to ship domestically I can ship from Taiwan for $1 and someone in China can ship it for 60 cents! US sellers are subsidizing e-packet mailings from Asia. I used to have a thriving e-commerce site--it was put out-of-business by a combination of cheaper manufacturing costs and much cheaper shipping from China! I know Ebay and Amazon oppose this, because Chinese vendors support their bottom line--but it is bad for us sellers and USPS loses BILLIONS of dollars per year having to deliver millions of cheap, e-packet mailings from Asia! This needs to stop! Go ahead and write to your representatives in DC, but SUPPORT President Trump's attempts to level the playing field and allow US sellers to be more competitive!

[tellin93]

It's NOT going to level the playing field, it's just going to make it cost the US consumer more to import things from ALL countries that are part of the UPU. Things cost more, folks have less $$ to spend...

[lovett-1000]

I agree this only helps China and others mailing a penny's.  When we pay for it with higher rates to U.S. buyers.  E bay wants the Union because if China has to pay more for the postage then they will stop selling all the less than $1 sales.  They make piles of them every day.  It keeps e bay going. They sure do not send you a message to write your congress. When rates go up every year on U.S.  sellers. They are happy to get the extra on the fees they charge for it.  But when it comes to the China fixing to have to pay if we leave this Union. They are getting on edge knowing sales will drop like flies even if. Even if like you say they will then at least have to pay same rates as we are now. They can send packages for penny's. Where we are paying least $2.71 With tracking if someone lives close. They will pay if we back out the union. It would only be fair to make them pay the minimum of the $2.71 like U.S. seller.  It would stop the under $ sales. On lots of the junk they sell. 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Attn: Ebay

I received your email this morning asking me to contact my congressmen to ask them to make sure we stay with the UPU, and you even had the audacity to title it  "Help Protect American Small Business". The UPU agreement only benefits foreign sellers, it does not benefit American sellers, in fact it does the opposite, it allows foreign sellers to undercut American sellers.

Dear American ebay sellers, do not support ebays attempts at asking you to slit your own throats, overall I'm not happy with DT, but he does have this one right, and it needs to be changed so all business operates on a level playing field.

[alcoforever]

If you can lick 'em, join 'em.   Move to China and then you too can enjoy beneficial postal rates.   Not to mention having access to all kinds of low cost manufacturing.

[reallynicestamps]

The Universal Postal Union Treaty was suggested by the USA in 1874 to allow the movement of the mail from one postal system to another.

It has 190+ member postal systems.  (Some are not government-run.)

Without the UPU, if I wanted to send a postcard to you from here on Vancouver Island Canada, to you in Goshen IN, I would have to take the ferry to Port Angeles to mail it in the USA.

And I can see the USA from my front porch, if I were in Ottawa or Tuktoyaktuk, delivery would be very difficult.

Leaving the UPU would stop all international mail to and from the USA in its tracks.

The effect on the economy would be enormous.

[richard1rst]

Trump made a comment earlier about withdrawing from the UPU due to China’s postal advantage. That is probably what eBay is responding to.

The UPU overseas all international mail everywhere in the world.

What would happen to all the mail we send internationally if we withdraw from the UPU? Better to fix the problem than to walk away which will NOT fix the problem.

As a sidebar Trump is also apparently working on getting the “third world status” removed from China which will/should wipe out their postal advantages. It is that “third world status” that was granted eons ago when China was still a more or less backwater country. They have fought hard to keep that status “grandfathered” in to their advantage even as they have moved to a first world country. It no longer applies and should be terminated.

The mills of the Gods grind exceedingly slow.

[richard1rst]

Addendum:

On the other hand you may be reading way too much into Trump’s threat to leave the UPU. Trump is essentially a businessman not a politician. He is more interested in negotiating a deal than in settling for the typical political non-comprise and false promises.

The ultimate goal is to take away China’s preferred Third World Status which they no longer need but cling to for the advantage it gives them.

So the first thing any negotiator does is to make an outrageous demand and paint a thoroughly unacceptable outcome to shock others into coming to the table in order to work out a real and practical deal. ‘Cause the alternative is chaos. RE “The art of the deal”

Think of it as the classic threat to “take me ball and go home” knowing full well that the others want to continue to play so they will negotiate something to keep you there. Advantage? Ball holder.

[tellin93]

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@dalmatiangirl61 wrote:

Attn: Ebay

I received your email this morning asking me to contact my congressmen to ask them to make sure we stay with the UPU, and you even had the audacity to title it  "Help Protect American Small Business". The UPU agreement only benefits foreign sellers, it does not benefit American sellers, in fact it does the opposite, it allows foreign sellers to undercut American sellers.

Dear American ebay sellers, do not support ebays attempts at asking you to slit your own throats, overall I'm not happy with DT, but he does have this one right, and it needs to be changed so all business operates on a level playing field.

---

You do realize that supporting this would make it so that you can only mail within the United States? It would totally screw the millions of Americans living abroad, including American troops stationed overseas.

[dalmatiangirl61]

"You do realize that supporting this would make it so that you can only mail within the United States? It would totally screw the millions of Americans living abroad, including American troops stationed overseas."

I am willing to suffer a short term loss, for a long term gain. I'm pretty sure those of us in the first world will find a solution, the 3rd world can either play, or not, its up to them. And yes, china still has 3rd world status, that is why their shipping rates are so low.

[reallynicestamps]

@richard1rst 

The 'third world /developing country status was given up voluntarily (more or less)  by China in 2016, after a concerted effort by EU and NorthAmerican postal services that included putting small, untracked, low value shipments at lowest priority for delivery.

Basically, the western postal systems went on strike-- or at least, work to rule.

Remember all those complaints about slow delivery on cheap Chinese orders that flooded the Buyer Boards from 2014 to 2016?  That's what those were about.

China Post has been slowly raising the cost to their people of international shipping ever since. There is another meeting in 2020 when progress will be assessed.

The ePacket mail came up after 2016.  As did the USPS contract to deliver this new format within the USA.  The USPS may have made a poor decision on that, just as I hear they did with Amazon, but that has little to do with the UPU.

[tellin93]

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@dalmatiangirl61 wrote:
"You do realize that supporting this would make it so that you can only mail within the United States? It would totally screw the millions of Americans living abroad, including American troops stationed overseas."

I am willing to suffer a short term loss, for a long term gain. I'm pretty sure those of us in the first world will find a solution, the 3rd world can either play, or not, its up to them. And yes, china still has 3rd world status, that is why their shipping rates are so low.

---

Ok let's put it this way, it will screw GLOBAL economy because no one will be shipping in or out of the USA.  

It might be great for sellers who only ship within thebUS and have steep competition coming from China, but going to kill sellers that ship internationally and those with very little competition from China.

Not to mention the fact that eventually supplies will run out and with the steep tariffs people won't be importing on a large scale, or will be forced Jack the prices way up on what they do.

So, prices go up, supply goes down, wages stay the same. It only hurts the average consumer...but hey if you like having to chose between buying a USB cable or buying a gallon of milk, it's a great idea

[tedsrecords]

eBay opened up a can of worms when allowing Chinese to participate on eBay. Experiment gone wrong.

[anthology-of-treasures]

How exactly are these Chinese products cheaper?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-made-the-right-call-to-withdraw-from-the-universal-pos...

This program will cost USPS at least $3 billion in loses over 10 years by the time the 1 year withdrawal process is completed. Who do you think pays for those loses? You do in the form of higher domestic shipping rates. I do not want to subsidize eBay and the Chinese government so you can buy products from an enemy of the U.S.

How many of the 800,000 to 1 million Uyghurs currently in Chinese prison camps did your purchases from China pay for?

If these other countries want access to the largest economy they will set reasonable rates. I don't see them selling much products to the second largest economy of China.

[anthology-of-treasures]

No it would not!

USPS moves 47% of the world's mail.

If these other countries want access to the largest economy they will set reasonable rates. Sorry, the sky is not falling.

The 1969 amendment was not part of the original UPU.

eBay's 2010 agreement between itself, USPS and China Post was not part of the UPU.

eBay is misusing a program intended to help poor people. China was not a developing country in 1969 let alone 2010.

Stealing form the poor to help the rich! It could end today if eBay ends its abusive program!