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Comment by iask | Hacker News Reader

Finally!!! Moves like this will help small and medium businesses compete...finally we won’t have to pay 25.00 to mail a small book to China.

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You'll still have to pay that price, but now a Chinese company will have to pay 25.00 to mail a small book to the US as well. This is just going to limit the sale of small goods internationally.

Also small volumes of the type small businesses deal in.

In every way this benefits mostly large stateside enterprises who source their products in bulk.

You would have to pay more actually. The cost for both the USPS and for China Post.

Withdrawing from the UPU will allow the US raise the rates Chinese mailers pay to mail into the US, but won't lower (and, depending on how China responds, may raise) the rates US mailers have to pay to mail into China. It's potentially an extension of the existing trade war in that respect.

Trade war or not. This particular move makes sense though. There is no reason to continue giving China - an economic superpower - a discount on mail.

> There is no reason to continue giving China - an economic superpower - a discount on mail.

Yes, working to negotiate a change to that particular element of the UPU price structure makes sense (which is why Canada already did it for China-Canada mail.)

Whether rage-quitting the UPU makes a lot of sense (even as a negotiating tactic), is a different question; the UPU is more than a Chinese discount.

I'm in Canada and I can still order all the $.99 items with free shipping from China I want - either there's some sort of magic happening, or the renegotiated terms still allow substantial subsidies.

Maybe it makes sense logically in the abstract, but I'm going to miss buying electronics components and building things.

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