Cost of Posting: UK to HK vs HK to UK

[Claire ex-ax]

Local mail services have been operating at a loss for many years and are subsidised by HongKong Post's profitable services.

[rakedavids]

seriously look at your life if this is what amazes you...
i think you need to interact with the world if you want to be truly amazed.

[R.O.]

People seem to be assuming that there is a partial transfer of the payments received for international postage between two particular countries, in this case HK and Britain.

I have always assumed this is not so. In other words, a country's postal service receives nothing for delivering mail from abroad, and everything for handling mail going abroad.

If so, it seems sensible.

There may be something comparable. Countries have agreed to deliver mail sent from countries they don't recognise. I have received letters from Israel in two countries, India and S Korea, which (at the time) did not recognise Israel. That's impressive.

[Stu79]

People seem to be assuming that there is a partial transfer of the payments received for international postage between two particular countries, in this case HK and Britain.

I have always assumed this is not so. In other words, a country's postal service receives nothing for delivering mail from abroad, and everything for handling mail going abroad.

If so, it seems sensible.

There may be something comparable. Countries have agreed to deliver mail sent from countries they don't recognise. I have received letters from Israel in two countries, India and S Korea, which (at the time) did not recognise Israel. That's impressive.

I assumed all mail services charged for sending only, not for delivery same as you. Be interesting to know if this is not the case.

[shri]

After the foundation of the United Nations, the UPU became a specialized agency of the UN in 1948.[8] In 1969, the UPU introduced a new system of payment where fees were payable between countries according to the difference in the total weight of mail between them. These fees were called terminal dues. Ultimately, this new system was fairer when traffic was heavier in one direction than the other. As a matter of example, in 2012, terminal dues for transit from China to the USA was 0.635 SDR/kg, or about 1 USD/kg.

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