Americans are "getting their clocks cleaned" under the "antiquated" rules, of the Universal Postal Union, but the Trump administration is pushing for a vital vote to bring the rates more into line with what other countries are paying, White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro said Thursday.
"The USPS, the postal system, has to heavily subsidize incoming mail of a number of countries to the tune of hundreds of million dollars a year,' Navarro told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo, noting that he was to meet with foreign ambassadors and representatives of the State Department later in the day at the Blair House in Washington, D.C., to work on negotiations.
"President Donald Trump said enough is enough and directed our team to tell the UPU we are getting out in a year," Navarro said. "We sent a notice to them...the good news is that the joint interagency team has done a really good job working with the UPU."
Trump had made the warning last October that the U.S. would pull out of the union if changes weren't made to payment structures, while arguing about the fees China pays being unfair to the U.S. and the deadline for change runs out on Oct. 17.
Navarro said he'll travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept. 23 for a third "Extraordinary Congress" and there will be two issues on the ballot. One allows all countries in the union to self-declare rates, ending a terminal dues system that costs countries to subsidize incoming mail, while the other a “multispeed approach," allows the United States to self-declare rates immediately, Navarro said in his column.
"If we get a favorable vote, we will be able to end this nonsense forever," Navarro told Bartiromo "If we stay in the UPU, it will be a great example of a diplomatic victory for the president."
Meanwhile, American manufacturers can't compete with shipping costs as they are, said Navarro, and the USPS is left to subsidize illegal materials coming into the United States, including fentanyl and other counterfeit drugs.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.