Just the cost of shipping one Mighty Mug within the U.S. would cost me $6.30… so how is a Chinese retailer sending a package 8,100 miles by plane, able to offer both the product and the shipping for lower than my shipping cost alone?
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The USPS is part of an arcane arrangement with the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which is the postal arm of the United Nations. This arrangement grants Chinese businesses shipping rates within the US that are far below what American shippers pay.
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Furthermore, this low shipping arrangement is not a two-way street. If we want to ship Mighty Mugs to China — now the largest e-commerce market in the world — the USPS will charge us over $22 to ship one mug.
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The most absurd part of this arrangement is that the USPS loses money on all of these inbound China shipments, which a 2014
report from the Inspector General of the USPS detailed.