The third Extraordinary Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was held last 24-26 September in Geneva.
It was held owing to the intention of the United States of America (USA) to exit the UPU (announced in October 2018, to occur in October 2019) if the current payment system for so-called format E objects is not revised. Such objects are basically small parcels and large letters and comprise the growing mail flows generated by e-commerce in recent years.
The payment system in question (also known as the terminal charges system) aims to ensure that the destination operator is compensated for the costs of processing and delivering mail from other countries. For the USA and other countries, such mail raises concerns because it does not enable the costs of the destination operator to be covered and leads to market distortions, whereby they defend introduction of the principle of self-declared rates.
Various proposals to change the payment system were formally presented for the Congress to discuss and decide on, resulting from work within the UPU between October 2018 and April 2019. The most conservative option only meant to accelerate the annual rate increases, while at the other end was an American proposal to introduce self-declared rates. There was also an intermediate option resulting from an attempt to reconcile the two previous proposals, envisaging a phased and controlled introduction of the self-declared rates.
The months before the Congress were marked by intense coordination activity between the main actors in this process (countries and the UPU secretariat), the aim being to work out a compromise solution acceptable to the USA so it would not leave the UPU, and which could be supported by enough countries to enable its approval at the Congress.
The Congress would eventually approve by acclamation a proposal (designated V for Victory) resulting from those negotiations, based on the intermediate option and adding elements from other proposals put forward in the meanwhile.
The decision envisages accelerated increases of payment rates for format E objects and the gradual introduction of self-declared rates starting in 2021 for most countries, allowing an exception for countries with a certain volume (very high) of mail, which can opt to self-declare the rates starting on 1 July 2020 – only the USA currently has the conditions to benefit from that exception. This decision also includes measures to protect developing countries with low postal traffic volumes from the impact of the changes.
The Congress had previously rejected the most radical proposal by secrete vote (78 countries against, 57 in favour and 9 abstentions), because the Congress’s decision-making rules state that proposals must be considered starting with the one farthest from the status quo.
The Portuguese delegation was headed by Ambassador Rui Macieira from Portugal’s permanent mission to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, and by João Cadete de Matos, chair of the ANACOM board of directors. It also included other representatives from ANACOM, Portugal’s CTT postal service and the aforementioned mission.
Consult:
- UPU discusses revision of the terminal dues system for ''E-format'' mail https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1484906
