We are revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) part 781 to implement new standards for returned undeliverable-as-addressed items that were posted abroad with a United States return address. This revision is consistent with the Federal Register final rule published January 14, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 9).
When items are posted abroad with a United States return address, the Postal Service™ provides the return service but previously received no payment for the services rendered. This final rule implements collection of a fee for these returned items.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)
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7 Treatment of Inbound Mail
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780 Items Mailed Abroad by or on Behalf of Senders in the United States
[Revise the heading of 781 as follows:]
781 Payment Required
[Add new 781.1 (using text from the previous 781) as follows:]
781.1 Postage Payment Required
Payment of U.S. postage is required to secure delivery of mail when the mailing is by or on behalf of a person or firm that is a resident of the United States and the foreign postage price applied to such items is lower than the comparable U.S. domestic rate.
[Add new 781.2 as follows:]
781.2 Handling Charges
Undeliverable-as-address mail returned to the sender for which outbound postage was not paid to the U.S. Postal Service is subject to the payment of handling charges. On delivery to the sender, the sender may be charged the First-Class Mail International rate for the weight and shape of the returned piece.
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We are incorporating this information into the online version of the IMM, which can be accessed via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com. Also, the printed edition of IMM 35 (dated May 12, 2008) will indicate this information.
— Global Business Management,
Global Business Development, 7-17-08
