China adds express restrictions
China has upped the ante in its fight with foreign express providers, prohibiting them from carrying personal letters and most official documents.
“International delivery companies will be allowed to carry express documents and document-type items into and out of the country, but not personal letters, nor documents from (Communist) party, government or military bodies at the county level or above,” said a joint statement from China’s Ministry of Information Industry, Foreign Trade Ministry and State Postal Bureau, known as China Post.
Foreign express companies must also apply for new operating permits by Nov. 5, it said.
“We are disappointed that this new notice does not address the issues,” the Council for Asia Pacific Express Companies said. “We are concerned that it will affect China’s competitiveness and the development of China’s economy.” The group’s members include FedEx Corp., United Parcel Service and DHL Worldwide, a unit of Europe’s TNT. All are battling for larger shares of the booming air express business in China.
The express providers previously protested when China Post introduced a rule reserving for itself all documents under 500 grams (17 ounces), a market which by some estimates could be worth as much as $1.8 billion a year. They contend the Ministry of Information Industry doesn’t have the authority to reserve that market for China Post’s Express Mail Service, and also said that the directive violates the spirit of China’s membership in the World Trade Organization.
The new statement doesn’t mention the weight restriction.
A spokesman for the group said it is discussing the details with the appropriate government authorities, but declined to elaborate. Individual companies also had no immediate comment.
China Post defended the new move, saying the national postal law stipulates that delivery of letters and goods “that have functions of letters” be exclusively operated by China Post. “Even the rules of the World Trade Organization do not promise the opening of the letter delivery business to overseas operators,” a China Post spokesman said.
