The cost of $300 million per year as quoted in the article seems like peanuts compared to some of the other actions this administration has burdened tax payers with.
You need to keep in mind that the postal treaty wasn't JUST for China either, almost every single nation was part of the postal treaty. Withdrawing from this treaty would likely result in increased postage for all international shipments.
Prior to 2005 it was consistently less expensive to shop at the local CVS, book store, or radio shack than to order online.
If my business model requires public subsidies for shipping my goods to turn a profit, my business model is garbage since 100% of my profits are literally taxpayer funded. Maybe small quantity mail order batteries from China isn't actually a reasonable thing to have and it maybe actually costs less to buy batteries in giant crates and have them available in local stores.
I might even say that this is obviously the case (for the battery example). Plus you build the local economy rather than subsidizing it's obliteration.
If a middle man was used, like an importer/warehouser, that middle man added their markup on shipping as well, typically 20 to 40%.
Once Amazon or Wal-Mart are the only company left, they will be free to raise the prices to whatever they want.
I would rather subsidize domestic shipping to lower barriers to e-commerce entrants if we feel a burning desire to subsidize something in this area.
epacketEMS is a class of mail with tracking. How is it unrelated?
The USPS makes a profit on epacket shipments [0][1], but loses money on UPU inbound shipments. The two aren't directly related.
[0] https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library..., page 6 table 2
[1] https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library..., footnote 17
This change will likely disproportionately affect the poor and middle-class (who will see a sharp rise in manufacturing jobs) as well as smaller businesses who rely on manufacturing to survive.
Given the state of the economy, "burdened" is not a reasonable description.
[0]: https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2018/mar/08...
1990 is a long time ago.
Steel is far from the only kind of manufacturing. Even if steel mill jobs all disappeared, overall manufacturing could be doing well. I'm not even 100% sure that steel should be lumped in with manufacturing; it's kind of like the final step of mining.
Process enhancements and technology face declining benefits. At some point, you've automated everything that makes sense to automate.
The jobs are going to stick around for 10 years unless we go back to a policy of purposely regulating American industry out of existence.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/05/investing/jobs-report-const...
https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/america-s-new-factor...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-03/manufactu...
https://www.businessinsider.es/jobs-report-july-manufacturin...
It's true that manufacturing jobs are on the rise, but it's still fairly clear what the long term trend looks like.
Not sure how that would impact the current global work-share in any measurable way...
...in China, while improving emloyment in manufacturing in USA.
Currently you have an imbalance in America's economy, where the poor and middle-class get goods from China, and the poor and middle-class in manufacturing[1] in China get the monetary reward.
Used to be that, due to local manufacturing of the goods, the same poor-and-middle-class americans would be earning back the money spent on the goods[1] by their neighbors, in effect exchanging with each other (and with local capitalists). However due to the current trade costs imbalance, a lot of the money flows out of american's pockets, but not back to them.
Will there be a price increase right around the change? Sure. But it will make local manufacturing more cost-effective, in effect spurring local employment in both production and related services, and thus looping the money expended on the goods[1] back in to the neighbor's pockets.
It's a win-win for the voters in USA.
[1] and related services, like engineering, transportation, worker catering & care, etc.