Handle with Fear: Fixing a Broken International Postal System

Is the international postal package system becoming a safe haven for drug dealers and terrorists? Are the rules governing the international postal system instituted by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency, disproportionately benefiting some of America’s fiercest economic rivals, particularly China? Are those rules making our own United States Postal Service (USPS) an unwitting tool of Chinese and other foreign e-commerce firms as well as traffickers in illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals—all at the American taxpayers’ expense?

These and other questions vital to our nation’s economy, health, and security have been addressed by a special Hudson Institute commission. The commission was headed by Hudson Senior Fellow Arthur Herman and included the Honorable Elaine Chao, former U.S. Secretary of Labor; John P. Walters, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; James Campbell, former member of the Advisory Committee on International Postal and Delivery Services; Richard Geddes, professor at Cornell University; John Hudak, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; Sean Heather, vice president of the U.S. Chamber’s Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation; and John Horton, president and CEO of LegitScript.

On September 19th, Arthur Herman and several members of the commission discussed their upcoming report on the broken international postal package system. They addressed recommendations for reforms and changes for the USPS and the UPU, including new technologies that could make the system safer and more accountable. This was a timely discussion of these important economic and security concerns, taking place just before the UPU begins its two-week Congress in Istanbul.

View Mr. Campbell's slides here.