International Terminal Dues

The U.S. Postal Service earns revenue when domestic customers send mail to foreign destinations and when foreign postal operators deliver mail from their countries to the U.S. Each postal operator that receives mail has the right to collect payment from the originating post to compensate for costs incurred to deliver that mail; these charges are called terminal dues. To offset the impact of low terminal dues rates, the Postal Service can negotiate separate (bilateral) agreements with countries to exchange international mail at higher rates. Currently, the Postal Service has many different types of bilateral agreements with multiple countries, ranging from comprehensive (multiple mail products) to product-specific. Even with these international bilateral agreements, it is difficult for the Postal Service to cover the costs of delivering inbound market-dominant international mail subject to terminal dues.