Courier companies worried by postal law

Foreign express-delivery companies operating in China including DHL, FedEx, TNT and UPS are fighting new legislation they say will undermine their ability to compete in the market for delivering documents and packages domestically, the Wall Street Journal reported. A new provision in the draft version of China’s Postal Law forbids foreign companies from investing in the domestic letter delivery business. Foreign delivery firms, most of which have been operating in China through joint ventures or other local operations, fear that the provision will make it harder to compete with China Post, the country’s state-owned postal service. China’s legislature says it will accept comments on the law until November 30. Total revenue in China’s postal system was US$12.7 billion last year, with express delivery accounting for more than a third of the total.