Universal Postal

Union

The Universal Postal Union (UPU, French:

Union postale universelle), established by
the Treaty of Bern of 1874,[1] is a
specialized agency of the United Nations
(UN) that coordinates postal policies
among member nations, in addition to the
worldwide postal system. The UPU
contains four bodies consisting of the
Congress, the Council of Administration
(CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC)
and the International Bureau (IB). It also
oversees the Telematics and Express Mail
Service (EMS) cooperatives. Each member
agrees to the same terms for conducting
international postal duties. The UPU's
headquarters are located in Bern,
Switzerland.[2]
 Universal Postal Union

Abbreviation UPU

Formation 9 October 1874

Type United Nations

specialised agency

Legal status Active

Headquarters Bern, Switzerland

Head Director-General
Bishar Abdirahman
Hussein
Parent organization United Nations
Economic and Social
 Council

Website www.upu.int

Treaty effective October 1874

History

In the UPU Monument (Weltpostdenkmal) in Bern,

bronze and granite, by René de Saint-Marceaux, the
five continents join to transmit messages around the
globe[3]

Before the Postal Union …

Before the establishment of the UPU, every
pair of countries that exchanged mail had
to negotiate a postal treaty with each
other. In the absence of a treaty providing
for direct delivery of letters, senders
sometimes resorted to mail forwarders
who would transfer the mail through an
intermediate country.[4]

Negotiations for postal treaties could drag

on for years. When Elihu Washburne
arrived in Paris in 1869 as the new United
States Minister to France, he found "the
singular spectacle ... of no postal
arrangements between two countries
connected by so many business and
social relations."[5]:13–14 At the last grand
dinner given by Emperor Napoleon III
before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian
War in 1870, the first topic he discussed
with Washburne was the postal treaty.[5]:38
After Napoleon III was defeated at the
Battle of Sedan, the United States became
the first country to recognize the French
Third Republic, an event that brought
thousands of Parisians into the street
shouting "Vive l'Amérique."[5]:124 However,
such sentiments did not lead to the
signing of a postal treaty between the
United States and France. There would be
no relief until the Postal Union was
established in 1874.[5]:14[6]:254–255
Washburne wrote, "There is no nation in
the world more difficult to make treaties
with than France."[5]:13

Faced with such difficulties, the United

States took the lead in calling for
improvements to international mail
arrangements. United States Postmaster
General Montgomery Blair called for an
International Postal Congress in 1863.
Meeting in Paris, the delegates laid down
some general principles for postal
cooperation but failed to come to an
agreement.[7]

General Postal Union …

Heinrich von Stephan, German Postmaster-General
and founder of the General Postal Union

The task was taken up by Heinrich von

Stephan, the Postmaster-General of the
German Reichspost. After defeating
Napoleon III in 1870, the North German
Confederation and the South German
states united to form the German Empire.
The Reichspost established a uniform set
of postage rates and regulations for the
new country. However, the uniformity
ended at the German border. Mailing a
letter from Berlin to New York required
different amounts of postage, depending
on which ship carried the letter across the
Atlantic Ocean.[8] To bring order to the
system of international mail, von Stephan
called for another International Postal
Congress in 1874.[8]

Meeting in Bern, Switzerland, the

delegates agreed to all of von Stephan's
proposals.[8] The Treaty of Bern was
signed on October 9, 1874, establishing
what was then known as the General
Postal Union.[9]

The treaty provided that:

1. There should be a uniform flat rate to

mail a letter anywhere in the world
2. Postal authorities should give equal
treatment to foreign and domestic
mail
3. Each country should retain all money
it has collected for international
postage.

One important result of the Treaty was

that it was no longer necessary to affix
postage stamps of countries that a
mailpiece passed through in transit. The
UPU provides that stamps from member
nations are accepted along the entire
international route.

Universal Postal Union …

The Treaty of Bern had been signed by 21

countries, 19 of which were located in
Europe.[nb 1]</ref> After the General Postal
Union was established, its membership
grew rapidly as other countries joined. At
the second Postal Union Congress in
1878, it was renamed the Universal Postal
Union.[7]
French was the sole official language of
the UPU. English was added as a working
language in 1994. The majority of the
UPU's documents and publications –
including its flagship magazine, Union
Postale – are available in the United
Nations' six official languages French,
English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and
Spanish.[10]

Toward the end of the 19th century, the

UPU issued rules concerning stamp
design, intended to ensure maximum
efficiency in handling international mail.
One rule specified that stamp values be
given in numerals, as denominations
written out in letters were not universally
comprehensible.[11] Another required
member nations to use the same colors
on their stamps issued for post cards
(green), normal letters (red) and
international mail (blue), a system that
remained in use for several decades.[12]

100 years of UPU commemorated on a US postage

stamp
After the foundation of the United Nations,
the UPU became a specialized agency of
the UN in 1948.[13] It is currently the third
oldest international organization after the
Rhine Commission and the International
Telecommunication Union.

Terminal dues

Origin …

The 1874 treaty provided for the

originating country to keep all of the
postage revenue, without compensating
the destination country for delivery. The
idea was that each letter would generate a
reply, so the postal flows would be in
balance.[14][15] However, other classes of
mail had imbalanced flows. In 1906, the
Italian postal service was delivering
325,000 periodicals mailed from other
countries to Italy, while Italian publishers
were mailing no periodicals to other
countries.[15] The system also encouraged
countries to remail through another
country, forcing the intermediate postal
service to bear the costs of transport to
the final destination.[16]

Remailing was banned in 1924, but the

UPU took no action on imbalanced flows
until 1969. The problem of imbalanced
flows became acute after decolonization,
as dozens of former European colonies
entered the UPU as independent states.
The developing countries received more
mail than they sent, so they wanted to be
paid for delivery.[15]

In 1969, the UPU introduced a system of

terminal dues. When two countries had
imbalanced mail flows, the country that
sent more mail would have to pay a fee to
the country that received more mail. The
amount was based on the difference in the
weight of mail sent and received.[15] Since
the Executive Council had been unable to
come up with a cost-based compensation
scheme after five years of study, terminal
dues were set arbitrarily at half a gold
franc (0.163 SDR) per kilogram.[16]

Modifications …

Once terminal dues had been established,

they became a topic of discussion at every
future Postal Union Congress. The 1974
Congress tripled the terminal dues to 1.5
gold francs, and the 1979 Congress tripled
them again to 4.5 gold francs. The 1984
Congress increased terminal dues by
another 45%.[16]
The system of terminal dues also created
new winners and losers. Since the terminal
dues were fixed, low-cost countries that
were net recipients would turn a profit on
delivering international mail. Developing
countries were low-cost recipients, but so
were developed countries like the United
States and the United Kingdom.[15] Since
the dues were payable based on weight,
periodicals would be assessed much
higher terminal dues than letters.[14]

The continuing fiscal imbalances required

repeated changes to the system of
terminal dues. In 1988 a per-item charge
was included in terminal dues to drive up
the cost of remailing, an old scourge that
had returned.[16] To resolve the problem
with periodicals, the UPU adopted a
"threshold" system in 1991 that set
separate letter and periodical rates for
countries which receive at least 150
tonnes of mail annually.[14] The 1999
Postal Congress established "country-
specific" terminal dues for industrialized
countries, offering a lower rate to
developing countries.[16]

Shifting balances and the United

States
…
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.[17] 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. They were opposed by
the German Bundespost and the
Norwegian Post, which wanted to increase
terminal dues.[15]

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.[17] The UPU established a new
remuneration system in 2016,[18] a move
that the United States Department of State
said would "dramatically improv[e] USPS's
cost coverage for the delivery of ...
packets from China and other developing
countries." However, the Chairman of the
Postal Regulatory Commission
disagreed.[19]

2019 Extraordinary Congress …

With the outbreak of the China–United

States trade war in 2018, the issue of
terminal dues was pushed into the
forefront. Americans complained that
mailing a package from China to the
United States cost less than mailing the
same package within the United States. At
the time, the UPU's Postal Development
Indicator scale was used to classify
countries into four groups from richest to
poorest. The United States was a Group I
country, while China was a Group III
country, alongside countries like Mexico
and Turkey that had similar GDP per
capita. As a result, China paid lower
terminal dues than the United States.[19]:38
The Donald Trump administration
complained that it was "being forced to
heavily subsidize small parcels coming
into our country."[20] On 17 October 2018,
the United States declared its withdrawal
from the UPU, effective one year later,
when it would self-declare the rates
charged to other postal services.[21]
The Universal Postal Union responded in
May 2019 by calling, for only the third time
in its history, an Extraordinary Congress for
24–26 September 2019.[22] The members
voted down a proposal submitted by the
United States and Canada,[23] which would
have allowed immediate self-declaration
of terminal dues.[24] The UPU then passed
a Franco-German compromise to allow
self-declared terminal dues of up to 70% of
the domestic postage rate, phasing them
in from 2021 to 2025. However, countries
receiving more than 75,000 metric tons of
letter mail could move to self-declared
rates on 1 July 2020. Trump adviser Peter
Navarro declared that the agreement
"more than achieved the President's goal,"
and UPU Director Siva Somasundram
called it "a landmark decision for
multilateralism and the Union."[25][26]

Standards
Standards are important prerequisites for
effective postal operations and for
interconnecting the global network. The
UPU's Standards Board develops and
maintains a growing number of
international standards to improve the
exchange of postal-related information
between postal operators. It also
promotes the compatibility of UPU and
international postal initiatives. The
organization works closely with postal
handling organizations, customers,
suppliers and other partners, including
various international organizations. The
Standards Board ensures that coherent
regulations are developed in areas such as
electronic data interchange (EDI), mail
encoding, postal forms and meters. UPU
standards are drafted in accordance with
the rules given in Part V of the "General
information on UPU Standards"[27] and are
published by the UPU International Bureau
in accordance with Part VII of that
publication.
Member countries

   UPU member states, including dependencies

covered by their membership
   UPU member state dependencies with separate
membership
   state represented in UPU by another state
   special observer status
See List of members of the Universal Postal Union for
full details.

All United Nations member states are

allowed to become members of the UPU.
A non-member state of the United Nations
may also become a member if two-thirds
of the UPU member countries approve its
request. The UPU currently has 192
members (190 states and two joint
memberships of dependent territories
groups).

Member states of the UPU are the Vatican

City and every UN member except Andorra,
Marshall Islands, the Federated States of
Micronesia, and Palau. These four states
have their mail delivered through another
UPU member (France and Spain for
Andorra, and the United States for the
Compact of Free Association states).[28]
The overseas constituent countries of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba,
Curaçao and Sint Maarten) are
represented as a single UPU member, as
are the entire British overseas territories.
These members were originally listed
separately as "Colonies, Protectorates,
etc." in the Universal Postal Convention[29]
and they were grandfathered in when
membership was restricted to sovereign
states.[30]

Observers …

Palestine is an observer state in the UN,

and it was granted special observer status
to the UPU in 1999. In 2008 Israel agreed
for Palestine's mail to be routed through
Jordan,[31][32] although this had not been
implemented as of November 2012.[33] As
of 2016, Palestine will begin receiving
direct mail.[34] In November 2018,
Palestine signed papers of accession to
the UPU.[35] However, its bid for
membership was defeated in September
2019 by a vote of 56-23-7, with 106
countries not voting, which fell short of the
required two-third majority of the UPU
membership.[36]

States with limited recognition …

States with limited recognition must route
their mail through third parties, since the
UPU does not allow direct deliveries.[37]

State Mail routed via

Abkhazia Russia

Kosovo Serbia

Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia

Northern Cyprus Turkey

Sahrawi Republic Algeria

South Ossetia Russia

Taiwan (Republic of China) United States, Japan

Transnistria Moldova

Congresses
The Universal Postal Congress is the most
important body of the UPU. The main
purpose of the quadrennial Congress is to
examine proposals to amend the Acts of
the UPU, including the UPU Constitution,
General Regulations, Convention and
Postal Payment Services Agreement. The
Congress also serves as a forum for
participating member countries to discuss
a broad range of issues impacting
international postal services, such as
market trends, regulation and other
strategic issues. The first UPU Congress
was held in Bern, Switzerland in 1874.
Delegates from 22 countries participated.
UPU Congresses are held every four years
and delegates often receive special
philatelic albums produced by member
countries covering the period since the
previous Congress.[38]
Philatelic activities
The Universal Postal Union, in conjunction
with the World Association for the
Development of Philately, developed the
WADP Numbering System (WNS). It was
launched on 1 January 2002. The
website[39] displays entries for 160
countries and issuing postal entities, with
over 25,000 stamps registered since 2002.
Many of them have images, which
generally remain copyrighted by the
issuing country, but the UPU and WADP
permit them to be downloaded.

Electronic
telecommunication
In some countries, telegraph and later
telephones came under the same
government department as the postal
system. Similarly there was an
International Telegraph Bureau, based in
Bern, akin to the UPU.[40] The International
Telecommunication Union currently
facilitates international electronic
communication.

In order to integrate postal services and

the Internet, the UPU sponsors .post.[41][42]
Developing their own standards, the UPU
expects to unveil a whole new range of
international digital postal services,
including e-post. They have appointed a
body, the .post group (DPG) to oversee the
development of that platform.[43]

See also
World Post Day
List of postal entities
List of national postal services

Notes
1. The Austrian and Hungarian delegates
signed separately, but the preamble to
the treaty considered Austria-Hungary
to be a single country.

References
1. "Universal Postal Union - United
Nations System Chief Executives
Board for Coordination" .
www.unsceb.org. Retrieved 16 June
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2. "The UPU" . Universal Postal Union
website. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
3. A postage stamp honoring the
sculptor and the monument was
issued jointly by Switzerland and
France.
4. Beam, Christopher (5 January 2007).
"How international mail works" . Slate
Magazine.
5. Washburne, E. B. (1887). Recollections
of a Minister to France, Volume I. New
York: Scribner.
6. Washburne, E. B. (1887). Recollections
of a Minister to France, Volume II. New
York: Scribner.
7. "History" . Universal Postal Union.
Retrieved 25 September 2019.
8. Krueger, Karl K. (January 1938). "By
Post to Peace". The Rotarian. 52 (1):
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9. Willoughby, Martin (1992). A History of
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10. "Languages" . Universal Postal Union.
Retrieved 9 October 2011.
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Lindquist., p. 104
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#279-284" . Kenmore Stamp
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14. Adams, Cecil (12 December 1990).
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17. "The Postal Illuminati" . Planet Money
(857). National Public Radio. 1 August
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Accountability Office (October 2017).
"GAO-18-112, Information on Changes
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20. "Pexit? US prepares to pull out of
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Postal Union. 25 September 2019.
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Favored Reform Plan" . Associated
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24. "UPU member countries narrow
options on remuneration rates by
rejecting Option B" . Universal Postal
Union. 24 September 2019.
25. Solomon, Mark (20 September 2019).
"Proposal floated to allow USPS self-
declaration of foreign postal
shipments; keep US in UPU" .
FreightWaves.
26. "UPU member countries reach
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remuneration rates" . Universal Postal
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27. "UPU Postal Standardization
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28. Gough, JP (6 October 2005). "The
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31. "Palestinian parcel post gets a boost" .
Universal Postal Union (UPU).
Retrieved 26 September 2010.
32. "Israel and Palestinians to boost
postal services with help from UN
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33. New resolution adopted on Palestinian
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34. https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-
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35. RASGON, Adam (18 November 2018).
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Union" . The National. 16 September
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38. "The Universal Postal Union (UPU)" .
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39. "WNS" . www.wnsstamps.post.
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40. "THE CABLE QUESTION" . The
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42. "IANA — .post Domain Delegation
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 School. The Lillian Goldman Law Library
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