Can someone explain why its cheaper to ship parcels from the UK into Canada than from within Canada?

[appleboxantiques]

How can Canadian sellers compete with international markets when shipping costs from outside of the Country are cheaper than inter-provincial shipping costs? Canada Post, get real for Canadian sellers quickly, or die real soon...

[momcqueen]

It is really a difficult question to answer succinctly. You may want to read the House of Commons Standing Committee study on Canada Post Corporation called Canada Post in the Digital Age. It's 133 pages and very enlightening. 

[widgetc]

I don't want to get into how the UPU works but on first approximation each member state  keeps the money paid in postage collected and the other member does the delivery on the receiving end for free. The favor is returned when it goes the other way. There are complex agreements to compensate at a lo per tonne rate for big imbalance in mail volume.

But in Canada with a much bigger land area, lower population, many remote locations, rural areas and perhaps higher employee compensation costs are higher.

it does make competing difficult.

[ypdc_dennis]

You mention the UK -- where the pound has lost almost 17% of it's value versus the Canadian $ since May -- that's a big shipping advantage for UK sellers, since the Royal Mail rates haven't been adjusted to reflect that.

And that big exchange drop gives UK sellers other short term selling advantages versus Canadian sellers.

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