Universal Postal Union (UPU)
The Universal Postal Union is the international organization created by the Treaty of Bern on October 9, 1874, at the suggestion of Heinrich von Stephan, that sets the rules for exchanging mail and parcels between countries.
What happened and why it matters
The UPU is the reason a parcel can cross borders through national postal systems at all, and its rules still shape the cost of low-value cross-border e-commerce. Before 1874, countries relied on separate bilateral postal treaties; the Treaty of Bern created a single postal territory with common rules. First called the General Postal Union, it took its current name in 1878 and became a UN specialized agency in 1948, and it has 192 member countries today. Terminal dues, the fees one postal service pays another to deliver inbound mail, are set through the UPU and long kept small parcels from abroad cheap to send.
People
Related events
Sources
- Factsheet: About the UPU upu.int
- 150 years of the UPU upu.int
- International Postal Congress britannica.com