U.N. postal union clinches deal to keep U.S. in club

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. agency coordinating postal systems worldwide on Wednesday reached a compromise to reform its fee structure, proposed by the United States, that would avert the Trump administration leaving the global network.

The deal was agreed by consensus at the Universal Postal Union's emergency congress after two days of talks, with delegates standing to applaud. The Trump administration served notice last October that it would leave in 12 months unless fee rates were changed so that importing countries did not lose money from distributing mail and packages from countries including China in the age of e-commerce.

Under the phased agreement, high-volume importers of mail and packages would be allowed to begin imposing “self-declared rates” for distributing foreign mail from January 2021.