When a letter is posted abroad how is the price of the postage
distributed among the countries involved. As an example if a letter was posted
from Iceland to India how would the postage revenue be split between the
two countries? And would any third country be entitled to the revenue (as
an example if the letter had to pass through it)
Thanks
Mongolia
Hello mongolia-ga,
That’s a great question. Here’s what found.
189 Countries of the world (including Iceland and India) are members
of the Universal Postal Union (UPU).
http://www.upu.int
UPU At A Glance
http://www.upu.int/about_us/en/glance.html
“Established in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) with its
Headquarters in the Swiss capital Bern, is the second oldest
international organisation after the International Telecommunications
Union.
With 189 member countries, the UPU is the primary forum for
cooperation between postal services and helps to ensure a truly
universal network of up-to-date products and services. In this way,
the organisation fulfils an advisory, mediating and liaison role, and
renders technical assistance where needed. It sets the rules for
international mail exchanges and makes recommendations to stimulate
growth in mail volumes and to improve the quality of service for
customers.”
According to the UPU Frequently Asked Questions:
http://www.upu.int/faq/en/index.html#01
“One of the lasting accomplishments of the UPU was to create a "single
postal territory" for the exchange of international mail. This meant,
among other things, that when postal customers purchased a postage
stamp to place on an international letter, the sending Post retained
all proceeds from the sale, and the Post in the addressee's country
received no payment for the costs it incurred in delivering that
letter. It was commonly accepted at the time that each letter sent
abroad would be reciprocated, and by extension, that incoming and
outgoing mail would attain a natural balance.
However, time and experience were to prove that there was an imbalance
between outgoing and incoming international mail. Because outgoing
mail volumes are closely related to socio-economic development,
developing countries were receiving much more mail than they sent, and
were obliged to process and deliver incoming items at a loss.
The UPU decided in 1969 to compensate administrations for the costs of
handling incoming letters and non-parcel mail, and gave the name
"terminal dues" to the payment mechanisms that were put in place. At
the Beijing Congress, commitments were made to move toward
country-specific terminal dues for all countries which would more
accurately reflect costs and market conditions, and which would be in
compliance with the World Trade Organization's principles of free
trade.”
So, the answer to your question is that the postage is not split. The
sending country retains all the proceeds, however, countries pay
“terminal dues” to make up for imbalances between incoming and
outgoing mail.
Other references:
United States Postal Service International FAQS
http://www.usps.com/global/intlratesfaq.htm
“On an individual transaction basis, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)
retains all of the postage revenue that its customers pay when they
mail letters, printed matter items, packages, etc., to addressees in
foreign countries.
However, in accordance with established international mailing
procedures, the USPS keeps records on both outbound and inbound
dispatches of international mail. This is to determine the aggregate
amount of mail (by class and weight) that it exchanges with each
foreign postal administration.
Periodically, there is a reconciliation of accounts with each foreign
postal administration. At that juncture, mailing records for a prior
period are compiled and exchanged in order to determine whether we
sent more or less mail to a particular destination country (e.g.,
Germany) than we received back in return.
Under Universal Postal Union (UPU) mailing regulations, whichever
postal administration sent out more mail to a partner country than it
received back in return is entitled to be compensated for the extra
handling and delivery costs that it has incurred. The compensation
that is payable in that situation is known as "terminal dues."
"Terminal dues" payments are subject to the provisions of the UPU
Convention. Virtually all postal administrations in the world are
signatories to that principal international mailing agreement.”
UPU Members
http://www.upu.int/members/en/members.html
UPU Facts about the postal network
http://www.upu.int/fact_sheets/en/fact_sheet_en.pdf
I hope you have found this information helpful. If you have any
questions, please request clarification prior to rating the answer.
Googlenut
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