Effective September 7, 2014, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) to reflect changes to the Individual Country Listings (ICLs) for Australia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
The following ICL changes are a result of formal requests made through the Universal Postal Union (UPU) via International Bureau Circulars (IBC):
n Australia: As indicated in UPU IBC 111, dated June 30, 2014, Australia is prohibiting most food, plant, and animal products, including the use of products such as straw and other plant material as packing materials.
n Moldova: As indicated in UPU IBC 94, dated June 2, 2014, Moldova is prohibiting items containing software or technical devices specifically developed, manufactured, programmed, or adapted to intercept information. Additionally, Moldova is adding a new observation stating that valuable articles should be sent as insured mail.
n Ukraine: As indicated in UPU IBC 91, dated May 26, 2014, Ukraine is revising its observation regarding goods sent by Priority Mail Express International® service — such a mailing will be subject to an import duty and value-added tax when its total invoiced customs value exceeds 150 EUR (reduced from the previous value of 300 EUR). However, the exemption from customs fees for goods up to 150 EUR does not apply if the goods are subject to excise duties.
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Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)
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Individual Country Listings
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Australia
Country Conditions for Mailing
Prohibitions
[Insert a new Prohibition in alphabetical order to read as follows:]
Most food, plant, and animal products, including the use of products such as straw and other plant material as packing materials.
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Moldova
Country Conditions for Mailing
Prohibitions
[Insert a new Prohibition in alphabetical order to read as follows:]
Software or technical devices specifically developed, manufactured, programmed, or adapted to intercept information.
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Observations
[Number the current Observation as 1, and insert a new Observation to read as follows:]
2. Valuable items and other expensive goods such as mobile phones, currency, precious stones, digital cameras, video cameras, and electronic devices should be sent as insured items. Moldova will not assume liability for loss of, or theft from, packages containing valuable articles or expensive goods.
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Ukraine
Country Conditions for Mailing
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Observations
[Revise the Observations section to read as follows:]
Goods sent via Priority Mail Express International service whose total invoiced (customs) value exceeds 150 EUR will be subject to a 10% import duty and a 20% value-added tax. However, the exemption from customs fees for goods up to 150 EUR will not apply if the goods are subject to excise duties.
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We will incorporate these revisions into the next update of the online IMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Pricing, 7-24-14
