Editing Universal Postal Union (section)

=== Origin ===

The 1874 treaty provided for the originating country to keep all of the postage revenue, without compensating the destination country for delivery. The idea was that each letter would generate a reply, so the postal flows would be in balance.<ref name="adams1990"/><ref name="morris2017"/> However, other classes of mail had imbalanced flows. In 1906, the [[Poste italiane|Italian postal service]] was delivering 325,000 periodicals mailed from other countries to Italy, while Italian publishers were mailing no periodicals to other countries.<ref name="morris2017"/> The system also encouraged countries to remail through another country, forcing the intermediate postal service to bear the costs of transport to the final destination.<ref name="campbell2019">{{cite conference |last=Campbell |first=James I Jr. |title=A Brief Overview of the History of the UPU Terminal Dues System |url=http://www.upu.int/uploads/tx_sbdownloader/paperABriefOverviewOfTheHistoryOfTheUpuTerminalDuesSystemEn_01.pdf |date=9 April 2019 |conference=UPU Remuneration Systems - New Frontiers for an Old World? |location=Bern, Switzerland |access-date=25 September 2019 |archive-date=25 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925162453/http://www.upu.int/uploads/tx_sbdownloader/paperABriefOverviewOfTheHistoryOfTheUpuTerminalDuesSystemEn_01.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Remailing was banned in 1924, but the UPU took no action on imbalanced flows until 1969. The problem of imbalanced flows became acute after [[decolonization]], as dozens of former European colonies entered the UPU as independent states. The [[Developing country|developing countries]] received more mail than they sent, so they wanted to be paid for delivery.<ref name="morris2017">{{cite news |last1=Morris |first1=David Z. |title=The International Postal System Is Profoundly Broken -- And Nobody is Paying Attention |url=https://psmag.com/economics/the-international-postal-system-is-profoundly-brokenand-nobody-is-paying-attention |work=Pacific Standard |date=14 June 2017 |access-date=12 July 2018 |archive-date=6 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206051645/https://psmag.com/economics/the-international-postal-system-is-profoundly-brokenand-nobody-is-paying-attention |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1969, the UPU introduced a system of terminal dues. When two countries had imbalanced mail flows, the country that sent more mail would have to pay a fee to the country that received more mail. The amount was based on the difference in the weight of mail sent and received.<ref name="morris2017"/> Since the Executive Council had been unable to come up with a cost-based compensation scheme after five years of study, terminal dues were set arbitrarily at half a [[gold franc]] (0.163 [[Special drawing rights|SDR]]) per kilogram.<ref name="campbell2019"/> Also since 1969, it announces the annual best postal services on 9 October, the [[World Post Day]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Keystone-SDA/dos |title=Swiss Post tops international ranking |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/swiss-post-tops-international-ranking/47012784 |access-date=1 February 2022 |website=SWI swissinfo.ch |date=8 October 2021 |language=en |archive-date=9 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009055124/https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/swiss-post-tops-international-ranking/47012784 |url-status=live }}</ref>