Effective February 6, 2025, the Postal Service™ is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) subchapter 260 regarding changes to M-bag® service and is revising each Individual Country Listing in the IMM to note whether M-bag® service is available to that destination.
These revisions are in accordance with the decision made during the fourth Universal Postal Union (UPU) Extraordinary Congress discussed in International Bureau Circular (IBC) 114, dated July 22, 2024. The following were noted during the UPU congress:
n M-bags (special bags for printed matter sent to a single foreign addressee at a single address) would become an optional supplementary service effective January 1, 2025.
n The UPU stipulated in that IBC, that designated postal operators opting to offer this service must specify whether M-bags are for outbound or inbound items and whether the following articles may be admitted in M-bags in accordance with article 17–107.7.1 of the Convention Regulations:
n Disks,
n Tapes and cassettes
n Commercial samples shipped by manufacturers and distributors; and
n Other nondutiable commercial articles or informational materials that are not subject to resale).
Subsequent information provided via IBC 181, dated November 18, 2024, contained a list of responses received from foreign postal operators as of November 5, 2024, and indicated that further updates to the list would be provided in future IBCs.
The United States Postal Service® recently provided to the UPU written notification that it will continue to offer M-bag service but opted to restrict the service solely to printed matter.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)
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2 Conditions for Mailing
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260 Direct Sacks of Printed Matter to One Addressee (M-bags)
261 Description
261.1 General
[Revise the text to read as follows (removing the reference to 261.22 in the first sentence):]
M-bags are defined as direct sacks of printed matter sent to a single foreign addressee at a single address. There are three types of M–bags:
n Airmail® M-bags.
n International Priority Airmail (IPA®) M-bags.
n International Surface Air Lift (ISAL®) M-bags.
All M-bags are subject to the following conditions of mailing:
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[Add new item d. to read as follows, and redesignate current items d. and e. as items e. and f.):]
d. Customs Declaration Form: The electronically generated PS Form 2976 must be fully completed and affixed to PS Tag 158.
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261.2 Eligibility
261.21 Printed Matter
[Revise the first sentence to read as follows:]
Only printed matter is admissible in M-bags.
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[Remove section 261.22 in its entirety and renumber 261.23 as 261.22.]
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[Add 261.3 as a new section to read as follows:]
261.3 Availability
See Exhibit 261.3 for a list of countries for which M-bag service is not available.
Countries that are not listed in Exhibit 261.3 have M-bag service available. See each Individual Country Listing for the Airmail M-bag price group, and for prices, see Notice 123, Price List.
Exhibit 261.3
Countries For Which M-Bag Service Is Not Available
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Individual Country Listings
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Airmail M-bags (260)
[For countries that do NOT have M-bag service — i.e., Austria; Belgium; Bhutan; Burma (Myanmar); Canada; Croatia; Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France; French Polynesia; Georgia, Republic of; Germany; Gibraltar; Hungary; Japan; Lesotho; Libya; Liechtenstein; Malta; Mauritius; Nicaragua; Russia; Slovenia; Suriname; Sweden; Thailand; Vanuatu; and Vietnam — replace the current ICL text to read as follows:]
Not Available
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The Postal Service will incorporate these revisions into the next edition of the online IMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Product Solutions, 2-6-25
