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Reply to: What to do if you get a mysterious packet of seeds in the mail from China Posted July 25, 2020

Josh, this is fabulous work! I would point out that brushing appears to rely on a little quirk in international shipping that is also the reason you can buy a $3 cable from China and they can send it to you fast and affordably. The Universal Postal Union, the international body that helps countries manage fair rates for international shipments, had a rule intended to promote developing nations that gave them a very low, preferred price for small packages to developed nations (between 500 grams and 2 kg or about 1 to 4.5 pounds plus some letters that were of odd dimensions). China is somehow still included as a “developing nation,” despite the size and dominance of its economy in manufactured goods. The US threatened to withdraw entirely from the UPU, which would have thrown international shipping into chaos, but there was a point to it! The USPS was increasingly subsidizing Chinese shipments. The estimate for last year was $300 million (!!) and it might have been $400 million this year. A last-minute change agreed to in October 2019 lets the US initially (starting this month) and other countries starting January 2021 phase in increases over five years to approach 70% and eventually 80% of their internal rates. Right now, companies in China can ship small packages more cheaply to the US than many companies WITHIN the US can ship to other US destinations! So these sorts of scams are going to become increasingly expensive. (And the value of buying small stuff from China will decrease, too.)

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Reply to: What to do if you get a mysterious packet of seeds in the mail from China Posted July 25, 2020

Josh, this is fabulous work! I would point out that brushing appears to rely on a little quirk in international shipping that is also the reason you can buy a $3 cable from China and they can send it to you fast and affordably. The Universal Postal Union, the international body that helps countries manage fair rates for international shipments, had a rule intended to promote developing nations that gave them a very low, preferred price for small packages to developed nations (between 500 grams and 2 kg or about 1 to 4.5 pounds plus some letters that were of odd dimensions). China is somehow still included as a “developing nation,” despite the size and dominance of its economy in manufactured goods. The US threatened to withdraw entirely from the UPU, which would have thrown international shipping into chaos, but there was a point to it! The USPS was increasingly subsidizing Chinese shipments. The estimate for last year was $300 million (!!) and it might have been $400 million this year. A last-minute change agreed to in October 2019 lets the US initially (starting this month) and other countries starting January 2021 phase in increases over five years to approach 70% and eventually 80% of their internal rates. Right now, companies in China can ship small packages more cheaply to the US than many companies WITHIN the US can ship to other US destinations! So these sorts of scams are going to become increasingly expensive. (And the value of buying small stuff from China will decrease, too.)