China Express Dispute Continues

The deadline for resolving a months-long dispute pitting China’s postal monopoly against foreign express delivery giants has been extended to mid-August, the world’s biggest express carrier FedEx said on Monday. The spat, centred around proposed restrictions on express services that would hand the state monopoly a competitive edge during China’s first year in the WTO, previously faced a June 15 deadline, when the thorny new rules were to have taken effect. ‘I understand from unofficial sources that the submission date has been extended to mid-August,’ a Fedex spokeswoman said in a statement to Reuters. ‘We remain confident that this issue will be resolved to the benefit of our customers in China.’ The stakes are high in a market state media has estimated at some $1.8 billion annually. Express firms have experienced 30 percent sales growth in recent years, the China Daily Business Weekly reported. State media quoted some foreign firms as threatening to pull out of the country, protesting that the new restrictions would affect more than half their business in China. The dispute flared up over a February China Post directive that proposed to restrict foreign express delivery firms from handling shipments weighing 500 grammes (1.1 pounds) or less. The directive also required all delivery firms to obtain operating certificates from the postal bureau or lose their licences. And it proposed to bar express firms from transporting documents carrying individuals’ names, and prohibit them from accepting documents from government or Communist Party bodies. Industry executives said China Post faced an obvious conflict of interest by being both industry regulator and competitor.