Shipping News - sorta

[junglejim]

Shipping from NZ to the US, for this kind of package size, costs around USD$12 and is insured up to around USD$165. Paying a bit more for the shipping ups the insurance to around USD$1300. It is curious that this tiny country offers cheaper shipping plus insurance, whereas the giant economic entity that is the US does not.

You actually get a better and safer service ordering from us than we do from you. Go figure.

Actually, countries don't get to set their own international mailing rates. I had originally written this back on January 30, 2019 in the Mystery Ink #23 thread:

I think this post will be OT, but here goes---

Overseas postal rates are not set by the individual country you are living in, but by an international body called the Universal Postal Union (UPU) which is part of the United Nations. The idea is that the more developed countries would pay more in international postal fees and subsidize the fees of less developed countries in order to enhance trade. And YES, there are a LOT of politics involved in how far up or down your country's grouping is. (Please note this is only for INTERNATIONAL rates, not rates within your own country.)

"How the current UPU Convention determines terminal dues is based on a complex classification of individual countries according to their level of economic and postal development. In 2012, the Doha Congress organized its member countries into six groups, for the purpose of defining terminal dues and other charges. In general, the higher the group number of a country, the less the Post charges for the delivery of inbound international packages and the less it pays for the delivery of packages sent to countries in the categories with lower numbers.

Group 1.1 includes the United States, Japan, Australia, and most of the world’s other developed economies, as well as most of the overseas territories belonging to Great Britain and France.

Groups 1.2 and 2 apply the same terminal dues schedule for inbound and outbound letter post. Group 1.2 includes more recently advanced countries, such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Group 2 consists of countries with mid-size economies such as Cyprus, Hungary, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, and Saudi Arabia.

Group 3 includes still emerging economies such as Argentina, Bosnia, Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Gabon, Cuba, Kazakhstan, as well as the People’s Republic of China.

Groups 4 and 5 apply the same terminal dues schedule for inbound and outbound letter post. These groups generally include least developed countries, but they also include countries with substantial economic potential such as Egypt, India, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

The appearance of China, the world’s second-largest economy, in the Category 3 grouping highlights a fundamental flaw in the UPU ranking system for terminal dues. That ranking is defined by a “postal development index” based on the level of postal service within that country. This overlooks the fact that a country such as China may have a relatively low level of domestic postal development for historical reasons — in China’s case, its modernization came after the era of paper-based communications — but may actually be a major player in international commerce, particularly e-commerce."

So while sending a 3 ounce packet (85 grams) of pens from China to Austria is cheap, sending the exact same packet from Austria to China is very expensive as far as international mail rates. Customs Duties are something else entirely. And insurance is an add-on that each country can charge whatever they want for.

All the Best.