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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: 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.

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  • (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.