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Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

It's a UN-based forced rate subsidy for developing nations that China still benefits from.

"According to the U.S. Postal Service, it costs around $20 to mail a small parcel weighing 4.4 pounds from one U.S. state to another, yet mailing the same package from China only costs about $5."

"The Universal Postal Union, a United Nations agency that sets postal rates among its 192-member countries, dictates USPS's artificially low rates. It bizarrely groups China – the world’s second-largest economy – with developing nations like Gabon and Fiji into its third tier of shipping rates, which are just a fraction of what the developed world must pay."

"USPS loses about $300 million per year on Chinese imports - losing about $1 per small package it delivers."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/04/04/trump_...

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Parent is correct, despite being grayed currently by downvoting. UPU is an international postal treaty organization that was subsumed into the UN. Every country used to have conclude treaties with every other country (read Anthony Trollope's autobiography for a fine account of his negotiation of one such treaty between the the US and Britain). China has gamed the system on this rule, so the US is forced to threaten withdrawal to fix it.

The rules were probably set when China was a poor country like Fiji. They seem to have overtaken only in 2009. In 1980 GDP (nominal) per capita of Fiji was 6x China, now China is about 60% ahead. They've come up fast. (data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_...)

In what sense can the UN "force" anything?

The article says that Trump is moving to pull out of or renegotiate the UPU agreement, which at worst is a Presidential choice, and it's not even clear to me why USPS can't do it unilaterally.

The UN can "force" rules upon us if we sign an agreement allowing them to do so. If we sign a treaty agreeing to abide by the rules set by a UN agency, then they can impose such rules, and under the US Constitution, such rules have the force of law within the US.

The rules might not be fair. Our recourse is to try to change the rules, and failing that, threaten to withdraw from the agreement. That's what we're doing.

> In what sense can the UN "force" anything?

Are we going to pretend the UN and UPU have zero power to dictate global shipping rates? Because that's exactly what they do.

They have zero power. The US can destroy the UN in a flash. But in that instance, humanity would pay much more than extra bucks for shipping crap we don't need.

A strong AND fair UN is a good deterrent for world wars. Of course, it's better to renegotiate any precieved unfairness than to just blow all violence avoidance safeguards like a world congress.

China got away with their economic trickery because of US corporate greed and short sightedness combined with the US public insatiable consumerism. But we humans have a short memory and we like being empowered by bully leaders.

Let's just hope we'll survive this age without too much bloodshed.

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