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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-going-postal dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Trump to pull US out of postal treaty

The US has announced plans to withdraw from a 144-year-old postal treaty, which the White House says lets China ship goods at unfairly low prices.

Under the treaty, a UN body sets lower international rates for packages from certain countries, a move originally designed to support poorer nations.

But the US says the discounts put American businesses at a disadvantage.

Officials said they hoped the notice of withdrawal would set the stage to agree a better deal.

"We're looking for a fair system," a senior administration official told reporters. "We do hope that ultimately we achieve a negotiated outcome."

The BBC's Asia business correspondent Karishma Vaswani says the move to pull out of the treaty is aimed at forcing the Chinese to give up the developing nation status they had when they first entered the pact back in 1969.

[...] The process of withdrawing from the treaty takes at least a year and the White House said it would be willing to remain in the UPU if negotiations were successful.

The US Postal Service and companies such as Amazon and FedEx have complained about the discounts for foreign shippers for many years.


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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:34AM (28 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:34AM (#751563)

    Orange man good.

    Foreigners bad.

    #MAGA

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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by Gaaark on Sunday October 21 2018, @10:21AM (25 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Sunday October 21 2018, @10:21AM (#751602) Journal

    The needs of the many outweigh.....

    #MEGA
    Make Earth Great Again

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:24PM (22 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:24PM (#751624) Homepage Journal

      Nope. When you hire a guy to run your $entity, he damned well better look out for $entity first.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:08PM (17 children)

        by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:08PM (#751651)

        That's the political equivalent of "Management by MBA", the short-sighted style that gets quick results in the short term at the cost of the future of the organization. Of course, even if the US wasn't run this way, many other countries are. Most of them actually seem to understand that it's a bad thing though.

        • (Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:28PM (16 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:28PM (#751657) Homepage Journal

          I'm not sure what world you've been living in but it's definitely not this one. See, in this world, the only thing that happens when one nation decides to put others ahead of itself is that nation collapses without making any difference at all in the rest of the world. Communism does not work in reality because it requires every member of the collective to think of the collective first, which is about as far away from human nature as it's possible to get.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:43PM

            by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:43PM (#751662)

            Canada, actually.

          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:53PM (10 children)

            by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:53PM (#751666)

            I should add that I think it's possible to do things in a much better way. Step one for me would be putting tariffs on goods and services coming from countries with poor environmental protections and human rights protections. Basically a sliding scale that knocks the advantage off destroying the planet and its people for profit. The worse you are, the more gets added. Yeah, it'd never be perfect, but I think it would be a *excellent* first step. It would guess it would move more production back to western countries *and* encourage polluters, etc, to clean up their acts. Just a thought, but I think this is the only way things can work. It discourages the "Race to the bottom" that happens otherwise.

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 21 2018, @03:45PM (9 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday October 21 2018, @03:45PM (#751681) Homepage Journal

              Which has nothing to do with international shipping. Like, at all. It is rather funny that both you and Cheeto Jesus are sitting there saying China needs money coming out of their pockets though. I wonder how that'll play out given that both of you oppose the other by kneejerk reflex.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:34PM (4 children)

                by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:34PM (#751702) Journal

                People can reach the same conclusion by different routes, even if one (der Gropenfuhrer) got there by entirely wrong or even entirely unrelated reasons. China needs to be smacked down, but not because of anything to do with Trump; because they're an existential threat to the civilized world, though I'm not sure the US counts in there any longer...

                --
                I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday October 22 2018, @02:28AM

                  by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 22 2018, @02:28AM (#751847) Journal

                  because they're an existential threat to the civilized world

                  I'm just curious: how did you reach this conclusion?

                  Also, your "conclusion" may also hinge on the assumption of "China is not part of the civilized world". Did you make this assumption along the way to your conclusion?

                  (not: I'm not saying I agree or disagree with your "conclusion" - more like an assertion - just asking how did you get to it).

                  --
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
                • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Monday October 22 2018, @07:46PM (2 children)

                  by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 22 2018, @07:46PM (#752116)

                  (der Gropenfuhrer)

                  I am SO stealing that... That's even better than President Cheeto.

                  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:25PM (1 child)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:25PM (#752140)

                    Anyone who stoops to childish names instantly turns the rest of whatever they are going to say off for me. If you can't discuss anything without doing that, it might say more about you than the president you dislike so much that you have to insert ridiculous comments everywhere you go.

                    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:21AM

                      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:21AM (#752746) Journal

                      Oh, *do* keep crying. A friend convinced me to go on a ketogenic diet and it's massively salt-wasting, so you would be doing me a real favor here by continuing to bawl your little baby eyes out.

                      --
                      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
              • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday October 21 2018, @05:24PM (3 children)

                by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday October 21 2018, @05:24PM (#751718)

                We were talking about

                When you hire a guy to run your $entity, he damned well better look out for $entity first

                . Regardless, I think there was something else the orange hefty bag got right too, although again, I think it was for what I considered the wrong reasons. It's bound to happen occasionally.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @08:03PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @08:03PM (#751757)

                  How many "orange hefty bags" are there in the US?

                • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 21 2018, @09:52PM (1 child)

                  by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday October 21 2018, @09:52PM (#751779) Homepage Journal

                  You know, it does my heart good to see someone using their own mind and sense of morality, even when it means they have to support someone they dislike.

                  --
                  My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday October 22 2018, @01:19AM

                    by Nerdfest (80) on Monday October 22 2018, @01:19AM (#751839)

                    Conversely, there are things governments I've voted for have done that I've been completely against. During our last election, I voted "strategically" to get election reform in place, as "First Past the Post" is a big part we're stuck with some of the current problems we have (in Canada and the US). They reneged on the promise though, speaking of things that have pissed me off.

          • (Score: 2) by Pav on Monday October 22 2018, @03:23AM (3 children)

            by Pav (114) on Monday October 22 2018, @03:23AM (#751852)

            Ahhh, to have to moral compass of a child... :) I know this is hard to grasp, but try - what if giving a damn about others is giving a damn about yourself? Even if you're a trillionaire this holds - just look at Saudi. That much power at the expense of others is a trap, and things quickly decend to Game of Thrones territory. If the plebs don't string you up, your fellow trillionaires will. You must try to be the most vicious of the vicious, even as your society fails - honest work just doesn't pay in that environment, but being an enabling sycophant does (until it doesn't eg. Khashoggi). Sweden used to be a good counterpoint, until it started sliding into the neoliberal dumpsterfire after slashing its tax rates in the mid 1990's. Luckily those refugees showed up to take the blame right when they were bitten by the economic conseqences of deficit spending to fund corporate tax breaks and giveaways. Still, Sweden still has its Keynsian legacy - the largest number of multinational companies per head of GDP. They can actually build a fighter aircraft on time and under budget too unlike the US these days. They've also reinstated their high income tax rates, though corporate rates remain historically lower (though high by international standards).

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 22 2018, @10:39AM (2 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday October 22 2018, @10:39AM (#751929) Homepage Journal

              Interesting that you think that way despite our entire planetary history showing that not looking out for yourself first, your tribe second, and whatever's left last if at all leads to extinction.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 2, Touché) by Pav on Monday October 22 2018, @12:21PM (1 child)

                by Pav (114) on Monday October 22 2018, @12:21PM (#751943)

                That's why we're single celled rather than... oh wait...

                • (Score: 1, Troll) by Pav on Monday October 22 2018, @01:42PM

                  by Pav (114) on Monday October 22 2018, @01:42PM (#751962)

                  Chimps consist of the warring family groups of which you speak. You're a sad excuse compared to a chimp - beta canines... no, it's actually worse - smaller than femanine. The strength of a juvenile. Your peaceloving species kills relatively fewer in internecine warfare. Your testes are comparatively tiny as one would expect from such a pathetic excuse for a species. You should learn DNA splicing and upgrade imediately. All this cooperating with outgroups is for sissies.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:36PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:36PM (#751704)

        Then he should start trying to do that. After his colossal failure with a trade war with China backfiring on him the way EVERY ECONOMIST ON THE PLANET would have told him it would had he listened to them instead of the yes guy he hired thanks to an amazon search, he seems to think he'll have a different result by doing the exact same thing from a different angle. If shipping from China suddenly increases then the american businesses that depend on imports from China to make their products at an affordable rate will STILL END UP GOING OUT OF BUSINESS.

        The difference here is instead of 10,000 particular items or more being hit by tariffs, EVERYTHING will effectively be hit by a tariff.

        This could end up being an interesting "postal war".

        • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Sunday October 21 2018, @06:25PM

          by Sulla (5173) on Sunday October 21 2018, @06:25PM (#751735) Journal

          The US is failing the trade war so bad that the chinese are running propaganda in midwest states because they are hurting so bad

          --
          Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 21 2018, @09:56PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday October 21 2018, @09:56PM (#751781) Homepage Journal

          You'd prefer to see every last manufacturing job in the US moved to China? Trade wars aren't fun for anyone but there are times they have to be fought. Even a loss would be a better result than a surrender.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday October 22 2018, @02:32PM

          by urza9814 (3954) on Monday October 22 2018, @02:32PM (#751976) Journal

          It's going to mostly hurt people selling on Wish.com and Ebay and that kind of crap. Larger businesses don't tend to use the post office for shipping materials. This should pretty exclusively hit low-volume shippers, which tend to be mostly direct-to-consumer.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:51PM (#751664)

      WTF, man?

    • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday October 21 2018, @03:59PM

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Sunday October 21 2018, @03:59PM (#751686) Homepage Journal

      I'm pretty sure the AC was joking. I found it humorous and modded it as such.

      --
      mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday October 21 2018, @11:47PM (1 child)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday October 21 2018, @11:47PM (#751814) Homepage Journal

    Thank you for your support! Vote Republican November 6th.!!

    • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @12:01AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @12:01AM (#751818)

      s/6th/7th/