The Association of American Publishers (AAP) welcomes the release of the 2022 Special 301 Report by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The Special 301 Report serves the critical function of identifying continuing impediments to the ability of U.S. copyright owners to compete successfully in foreign markets, including markets of importance to the U.S. publishing industry. China remains on the Priority Watch List, with the Report again noting the prevalence of online piracy and the significant obstacles to releasing legitimate content into the market, given China’s stringent content review requirements. While Canada has made progress with respect to the certain IP and enforcement issues, per its obligations under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the country continues on the Watch List, given the U.S government’s continuing concerns with the “ambiguous education-related exception added to the copyright law in 2012,” and “high levels of online piracy.”

Keep US Posted — a nonprofit advocacy group of consumers, nonprofits, newspapers, greeting card publishers, magazines, catalogs and small businesses — is warning Americans that stamp prices are set to increase on July 9 for the second time in 2023, and cautioning that if such unprecedented and excessive postage increases continue, Americans could be facing a government bailout of the U.S. Postal Service. The July increase marks the third such increase in 12 months — the most mailing rates have increased during the U.S. Postal Service’s 247-year history. Yoder continued, “DeJoy’s stated intent has been to use stamp increases to bring in additional revenue, yet each hike drives down mail demand at a progressively faster rate and increases internal costs, meaning less revenue for USPS, no matter how much more a stamp costs. The result is additional strain on the system. Congress passed bipartisan postal reform in 2022 intending to prevent these excessive postage increases by bringing financial solvency to the Postal Service but USPS, under DeJoy’s leadership, has plowed ahead with pre-planned stamp increases, which will continue every six months. The American people need Congress to step in now and bring additional oversight to the USPS rate strategy, otherwise we could be looking at a situation where a federal bailout is necessary."

FY24 first quarter service performance scores covering October 1 through November 3, included: *First-Class Mail: 88.0 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 3.0 percentage points from the fiscal fourth quarter. *Marketing Mail: 94.6 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal fourth quarter. *Periodicals: 85.7 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal fourth quarter.