eBay appealed to international postal services to solve problems in cross-border parcel delivery, pointing to small businesses around the world who rely on postal shipping services.
Stefan Krawczyk, head of Government Relations International at eBay, gave a keynote address at the Universal Postal Union (UPU) global conference on trade facilitation program in Switzerland in November. The UPU developed the program to focus on facilitating trade for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through the postal network worldwide.
Krawczyk said postal services face a golden opportunity in the ecommerce market, if they can offer reliable, affordable, fast and traceable cross-border delivery, according to the UPU summary of his address.
The executive shared the findings of eBay’s report that found that 93% of businesses using eBay in Europe engage in cross-border commerce – the majority of whom are micro firms with fewer than 10 employees.
Efficient postal services are at the heart of the new trade model, Krawczyk said. Ecommerce is the way that small businesses that would otherwise have fallen by the wayside can be included in the world economy, he said, appealing to Posts to solve problems in cross-border parcel delivery.
The UPU sets terminal dues which are the heart of what some see as an imbalance leading to a disadvantage for US sellers thanks to USPS negotiated ePacket rates for Asian countries. The UPU is holding the 26th Universal Postal Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, from September 20th to October 7, 2016, where the issue of terminal dues will be reviewed.
