FS Bullets & Brass Blogs
Shipping Incident bulletin 15th February 2019
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This week’s bulletin contains updates about: Germany, USA, Canada, Chile, India, Australia, Japan, China, Belarus, Jamaica.
Finland
Start date:Â Â 13th February
End date:Â Â Â 15th February
The designated operator of Finland, Posti, informs other Union member countries and their designated operators that, owing to a strike on 13 and 14 February 2019 at the Helsinki office of exchange, outbound letter mail will be delayed by one to two days.
Belgium
Start date:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 13th February
Expected end date:Â Â Â 14th February
Bpost informs other Union member countries and their designated operators that a national general strike has been announced in Belgium for 13 February 2019. Road traffic in the country is expected to be heavily disrupted, which will likely affect postal services.
Air traffic controllers and ground handlers at Brussels airport are also expected to take part in the strike, which will likely have an impact on inbound and outbound postal operations.
Australia
Start date:Â Â 8th February
End date:Â Â Â 10th February
A severe weather event, with rain and floods in NSW, Australia resulted in power outage in Sydney OE on 8th February and was impacting the collection and processing of all mail products for the postcodes: 2000 – 2999. Operations were back to normal on Sunday 10th February.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-08/sydney-lashed-by-severethunderstorms/10795654.
United States
Start date:Â Â 11th February
End date:Â Â Â Ongoing
Heavy snowfall disrupts road and air traffic: heavy snowfall has led to significant disruption in the wider city area of Seattle. Several roads have been closed as a precaution and more than 300 flights have been cancelled at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Start date:Â Â 13th February
End date:Â Â Â Ongoing
Heavy snowfall disrupts road and air traffic: heavy snowfall has led to significant disruption in the wider city area of Seattle. Several roads have been closed as a precaution and more than 300 flights have been cancelled at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Japan
Start date:Â Â 9th February
End date:Â Â Â Ongoing
Airport operations disrupted due to snow: at least 130 flights at Haneda and Narita airports in Tokyo have been cancelled or delayed due to snowfall. No timeline as to when the operations would resume was provided.
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Technical problems
France
Start date:Â Â 12th February
End date:Â Â Â 12th February
Data display issues reported: On February 12, La Poste indicated that it has been experiencing data display issues due to the implementation of a new IT system. No further disruption has been reported.
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Switzerland –Â value-added tax
Start date:Â Â 1sth January
The designated operator of SWITZERLAND wishes to inform the designated operators of Union member countries of the consequences of the partial revision of the law on value-added tax in Switzerland. Since 1 January 2019, foreign mail-order companies with an annual turnover of 100,000 CHF or more originating from small consignments (tax amount of 5 CHF or less) sent to customers in Switzerland have been liable to pay VAT. Companies affected by this new rule must register with the Federal Tax Administration (FTA). Information on the steps needing to be taken by the mail-order companies concerned in order to ensure that their international postal items sent to Switzerland can be delivered correctly is available on the following web pages: Federal Tax Administration (FTA): www.estv.admin.ch/estv/en/home/mehrwertsteuer/fachinformationen/rege lung-fuerden-versandhandel.html
Swiss Post: www.post.ch/mail-order-regulation