@digital*ghost wrote:
@x3n0m wrote:
I think if you want to offload a few dozen rocks every month or cheap chinese junk then this is the place to be
.. but surely to make a profit on ebay those rocks and chinese junk would need to be procured and/or manicured via child/slave labour and then would need to be imported from a 3rd world country who forces Australia to adhere to the draconian UN postage agreement thus punishing all Aussies into paying more to post a parcel ..
Since when does China "force" Australia Post to adhere to the UPU agreement?
I hear pretty much everyone complain about the UPU agreement and yes, it's getting pretty outmoded and badly skewed.
And yes, high volume imports do damage AP's bottom line and do force parcel prices up.
But (and it's a big BUT) if pollies had the will they DO have the tools to do something about it.
Here's the appropriate section from the UPU parcel post agreement:
Prot Article II
Charges
1 Notwithstanding article 6, Australia, Canada and New Zealand shall be authorized to collect postal charges other than those provided for in the Regulations, when such charges are consistent with the legislation of their countries.
The above appears on page 52 (D.2) of the agreement below:
The full acts (in 4 parts) are here:
So you will see that in fact it is only a matter of local (Australian) legislation (or lack of political will).
Australia NZ and Canada all saw the freight train coming quite a few years ago and reserved the right to balance the ledger.
The fact that they have not done so is a matter for your federal MP.
Scitch'em.
You are the ones paying for this hedging every time you post something.
Anyone concerned with the UPU should take the opprtunity to read the agreements above.
All the information is freely available and, although it's not exactly easy reading, it's in plain English with no heretofores or very many whereases lol.
The cost calculation spreadsheets are a bit hard to follow but once you work out how to convert the currency variable you can see exactly what Aus Post claim for delivering an imported parcel or any other item of mail.
You'll find these calculators when you have a look around the UPU website.
