An important UPU vote paves the way for Posts worldwide to transport some equipment containing lithium batteries.
Member countries have overwhelmingly voted in favour of changing international mailing rules to allow Posts to carry packages containing equipment with lithium batteries.
The UPU Convention currently classifies lithium cells and batteries as dangerous goods prohibited from travelling in the mail.
Changing the Convention rules is normally done at the Universal Postal Congress, which is held every four years and gathers the plenipotentiaries of the UPU’s 191 member countries. The next one will be in Doha, Qatar, in 2012.
But according to UPU procedures, changes can be made in between Congresses if at least 50 per cent of its member countries vote on proposed amendments and two-thirds of them approve the changes.
One hundred and six member countries voted in favour of the changes. It is the first time in UPU history that significant changes have been made to the Convention in between Congresses.
Welcomed results
Japan, which initiated the proposed changes, welcomed the results of the vote, in the light “of the expanding cross-border e-commerce market facilitated by the Internet,” said Japan Post’s president and CEO, Shinichi Nabekura. The change will enable Posts worldwide to better meet customers’ shipping needs.
As a result of the positive vote, two Convention articles dealing with letter-post and parcel-post regulations will be aligned with new packaging instructions by the International Civil Air Organization (ICAO) to allow personal equipment carrying fewer than four cells or two batteries to be shipped by air.
The UPU changes will be presented to ICAO’s dangerous goods panel in April so that the organization’s own technical instructions can be harmonized with the UPU’s new rules.
The rules are expected to come into force on October 1, 2011, almost one year before the 2012 Doha Congress.