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World postal union rejects Trump’s favored reform plan

FILE - In this file photo dated Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, U.S. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro speaks during a television interview at the White House, in Washington, U.S.A. The U.S. is threatening to pull the United States out of the 145-year-old Universal Postal Union, as Navarro said they opposes options being considered that would maintain the current limits. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - In this file photo dated Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, U.S. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro speaks during a television interview at the White House, in Washington, U.S.A. The U.S. is threatening to pull the United States out of the 145-year-old Universal Postal Union, as Navarro said they opposes options being considered that would maintain the current limits. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) FILE - In this file photo dated Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, U.S. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro speaks during a television interview at the White House, in Washington, U.S.A. The U.S. is threatening to pull the United States out of the 145-year-old Universal Postal Union, as Navarro said they opposes options being considered that would maintain the current limits. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By Associated Press 4 min read

GENEVA – In a showdown Tuesday at a Universal Postal Union meeting, countries rejected the Trump administration’s favored approach to an international mail problem that is making the U.S. consider leaving the 145-year-old body.

The meeting in Geneva this week is shaping up as a test of the Trump administration’s diplomatic clout. Trump trade envoy Peter Navarro appealed “personally” on Tuesday’s opening day of the emergency meeting for countries to support Washington’s reform push.

The UPU’s “extraordinary congress” is only the third since the 192-member intergovernmental body was created in 1874 to smooth international mail deliveries.

The Trump administration insists that some postal carriers, such as China’s, aren’t paying enough to have foreign shipments delivered to U.S. recipients and argues the current international mail system is ill-suited for the 21st-century boom in shipping because of e-commerce.

“The mission here today is to retool this system for the brave new world of e-commerce,” Navarro said in brief remarks to delegates. “As we say in America, ‘You know what to do.'”