The State Post Office Informed The Decisions And Implications Of The Reform Of International Packet Terminal Fees.

In October 14th, the State Post Office held a news briefing to inform the media about the decision and background and impact of the international small packet terminal fee reform made by the third special session of the Universal Postal Union.

In the context of the US's withdrawal from the Universal Postal Union and the 145 year old global postal system facing the challenge of tariff reform, the third special session of the Universal Postal Union was held in Geneva, Switzerland in from September 24th to 26th. How to balance the demands of all parties is the focus of this meeting.

According to relevant media reports, the General Assembly rejected the US proposal for a fully customizable terminal fee scheme B, unanimously adopted the fusion of all parties' demands V (V represents victory), the United States renounced the "retreat group" and continued to stay in the world postal union. This fully reflects that most member states support the multilateral mechanism of the Universal Postal Union and maintain their political will in the field of single postal service, which is an important manifestation of multilateralism's victory over unilateralism and the limit of pressure.

According to the convergence plan V, in 2020, countries continued to implement the multilateral tariff system, raised and levelled the terminal cost ceiling of the 1 to 4 groups, and the terminal fees of third countries in China rose by 27% in 2020.

From 2021 to 2025, countries implemented the restricted custom terminal fee system with transitional arrangements. The annual rate of increase of 158 grams of international packet size (global average) ceiling was 15%, 15%, 16%, 16%, 17%, respectively.

In addition, in 2018, countries that import more than 75 thousand tonnes of mail business (currently only the United States meet the requirements), the user defined terminal fee system can be implemented in advance from July 1, 2020, but it is necessary to pay 40 million Swiss francs to the Universal Postal Union from 2021 to 2025.

The participating countries generally agreed that the fusion program V effectively balanced the different demands of Member States on cost coverage and market development, while paying close attention to the interests of developing countries and small countries, fully reflecting the spirit of mutual benefit and consensus. Bishall Hussein, general secretary of the International Bureau of Universal Postal Union, called the adoption of programme V "a great victory in the history of the reform of the Universal Postal Union".

The programme V adopted by the conference will enable the third countries in our country to increase the total number of terminal fees for international exports from 2020 to 2025. Compared with 2019, the total number of terminal fees increased by 164%, thus pushing up the cost of cross-border e-commerce logistics in China.

However, the adverse impact of the scheme on our country is relatively small, because if we implement a fully customizable program B, China will face an average growth of 212% in January 1, 2020 from the end of January 1, 2020, some of which will exceed 600%. If the compromise plan is implemented, the cumulative growth rate will be 185% between 2020 and 2025. According to preliminary estimates, according to the plan V, China Post Group and Hongkong Macau post could pay less than about 6000000000 yuan for the terminal B in 2020.

Gao Hongtao, deputy director of the office of the State Post Office (Foreign Affairs Division), said that the achievements of this conference were hard won and played a role in reducing the market impact brought about by the initial stage of the custom terminal fee system. However, the current reform plan is only a transitional arrangement. In the long run, it is imperative to reform the market and customize terminal fees.

China's postal export channels are single, the international network of express delivery is weak, the domestic market and the international market are out of balance, and the advantages of cross-border e-commerce products are short.