So if I am ordering something across the ocean, compared to me sending something to a friend across the ocean, I pay more than 5 times more for sending a package than just ordering something from the same place, and it’s always like that. Do businesses get some special deal or something?
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Each country is able to set prices for shipping material from one place to another within their own borders, but when it comes to setting prices for shipping material from one country to another, those rates are set by the Universal Postal Union.
The UPU designates some countries as “target” (developed), “new target” (semi-developed), and “transitional” (less developed). Shipping sent from “transitional” countries to “target” countries costs less than shipping from “target” countries to “transitional” countries. There are over 100 “transitional” countries, and about 40 “target” and 40 “new target” countries, but since the target countries tend to send more mail, it balances out, and the excess charged in target country postal fees allows “transitional” countries to send mail for less than the cost of delivery.
There is some controversy over this, as some of the countries designated as “transitional” like China, Brazil, Russia, and India have GDP comparable to the countries designated as “target” like the United States, Germany, and Japan.
Thus it’s cheaper to send a package from China to the United States than it is to ship that same package from the United States to China, or from New York to Connecticut for that matter.
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