Effective March 7, 2016, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®), section 933.14, to indicate that valuable articles are no longer included in the exceptions to indemnity for Priority Mail International® service.
Before the January 17, 2016, price change, mailers could use Priority Mail International service to send valuable articles only if they also purchased insurance as an extra service. However, as of January 17, 2016, all Priority Mail International items (other than Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelopes and Small Flat Rate Priced Boxes) include insurance at no additional charge — either $100 document reconstruction insurance, or $200 merchandise insurance in case of lost, damaged, or missing contents. Also, the sender may purchase additional merchandise insurance coverage up to a maximum of $5,000, depending on individual country insurance limits. Therefore, mailers may now send valuable articles by Priority Mail International service.
Consequently, we are revising 933.14 to indicate that valuable articles sent in Priority Mail International parcels are no longer excluded from payment of indemnity.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)
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9 Inquiries, Indemnities, and Refunds
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930 Indemnity Payments
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933 Payments for Priority Mail International Parcels
933.1 General Provisions
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933.14 Priority Mail International Parcels — Exceptions to Indemnity
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[Revise item a. to read as follows (deleting references to valuable articles):]
a. For parcels containing prohibited articles.
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We will incorporate this revision into the next update of the online IMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at http:⁄⁄pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Pricing, 2-18-16
