Express Delivery and the Postal Sector in the Context of Public Sector Anti-Competitive Practices

Abstract

This article focuses on the problem of a particular type of service and the barriers on this service (express delivery) that countries place upon it. Not surprisingly, those countries that are the most competitive and have the fewest barriers to trade and problems of monopolization (i.e., those countries that suffer least from monopolistic behavior in their express delivery market) have the most effective and competitive distribution systems. Section II of this article explains the importance of express delivery to the international economic system. Section III offers examples of how countries erect public sector barriers to entry in this field to limit the ability of private sector entrants to compete. Section IV examines how privatization in conjunction with liberalization will improve opportunities for entrants to provide express delivery services. Section V explains how current legal mechanisms could promote greater competition on the issue of public sector barriers to entry in the express delivery segment of the postal services sector. Section VI concludes by advocating increased global cooperation for the elimination of entry barriers.

Keywords: Postal, competition, express delivery, trade, antitrust

JEL Classification: F1, K21