Effective July 19, 2018, the Postal Service™ is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) to reflect changes to the Individual Country Listing for China.
As a result of formal requests made through the Universal Postal Union via International Bureau Circular (IBC) 23, dated February 9, 2015, and IBC 71, dated May 28, 2018, China is adding numerous prohibitions and revising several existing prohibitions on items to mainland China.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)
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Individual Country Listings
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China
Country Conditions for Mailing
Prohibitions (130)
[Revise the list of Prohibitions to read as follows — for this article, we are using bold to indicate the new entries and italics to indicate the revised entries:]
Animal-derived fertilizer, animal carcasses, animal specimens, and animal-derived waste.
Animals (live), including mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and other invertebrates; and animal genetic materials.
Arms, ammunition, weapons. Firearms and firearm components (including replica firearms); prohibited knives and edged weapons; crossbows; defensive chemical dispensers (mace, pepper spray, tear gas, etc.); and electric stun guns.
Articles in hermetically sealed, nontransparent containers.
Biochemical products.
Chinese currency.
Coins; banknotes; securities payable to bearer; traveler’s checks; gold, silver, platinum, manufactured or not; precious stones; jewelry; and other valuable articles, unless sent as an insured post.
Cubilose (edible birds’ nests).
Eggs and egg products.
Fresh fruits and vegetables.
Genetically modified biomaterials.
Manuscripts, printed matter, photographic negatives, gramophone records, films, magnetic tapes, video tapes, etc., which could do political, economic, cultural, or moral harm to the People’s Republic of China.
Meat and meat products, including raw or cooked meat (including viscera), fat, grease, hides, hooves, bones, horns, animal derived feedstuffs (such as meat meal, fish meal, bone meal, and whey powder), and animal-derived Chinese medicinal materials.
Milk and dairy products.
Perishable infectious and noninfectious biological substances including microbial strains, virus strains, and other animal and plant pathogens; pests and other harmful organisms; cells, organs, and tissues; blood and blood products; and other biological materials.
Radioactive materials.
Radio receivers, transmitters or receivers of all kinds, walkie-talkies and parts thereof; valves, antennae, etc.
Seeds, seedlings, nursery stocks, and other plant propagating materials.
Soil and organic cultivation media.
Tobacco leaves (except cut tobacco).
Toxic substances.
Used clothing and bedding.
Wrist-watches, cameras, television sets, radio sets, tape records, bicycles, sewing machines, and ventilators.
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Although effective July 19, 2018, the Postal Service will incorporate these revisions into the next edition of the online IMM. The online IMM is available via Postal Explorer® at pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification, Marketing, 7-19-18
