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Yes, serious question and thanks for the response. Is there some explicitly listed criteria for what makes a country 'developing' in the Universal Postal Union

• Arnt 5y ago
  Yes, there was, several over time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union#Terminal_dues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union#Termina... will interest you. I quote the part that is perhaps most intersting to you: «In 2010, the United States was a net sender because it was mailing goods to other countries. That year, the United States Postal Service made a $275 million surplus on international mail. In addition, the UPU system was only available to state-run postal services. Low terminal dues gave the United States Postal Service an advantage over private postal services such as DHL and FedEx. To protect its profits on sending international mail, the United States voted with the developing countries to keep terminal dues low. […] However, the low terminal dues backfired on the United States due to shifts in mail flows. With the growth of e-commerce, the United States began to import more goods through the mail. In 2015, the United States Postal Service made a net deficit on international mail for the first time. The deficits increased to $80 million in 2017. The UPU established a new remuneration system in 2016, a move that the United States Department of State said would "dramatically improv[e] USPS's cost coverage […]» The fee structure was changed only one year after the USPS stopped profiting. As I see it, "developing" has little to do with the UPU fee system.