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An Extraterritorial Office of Exchange (ETOE) is a commercially-oriented office or facility operated by or in connection with a postal operator in a country other than its parent country. The most recent Congress of the Universal Postal Union, the UN specialized agency responsible for postal issues, decided in Bucharest in 2004 that items that originate from ETOEs are strictly commercial items not covered by the provisions of the UPU Convention, unless the laws or policies of the destination country allow ETOE traffic to be considered as international mail. Items exported from ETOEs operating in the United States must be accompanied by commercial customs documentation, that is, commercial airway bills; these items are not considered as international mail.

[edit] External links

• German policy note from 2003
• U.S. State Department policy on ETOEs
• UPU Circular explaining U.S. State Department policy towards ETOEs operating in the United States
• ETOEs in the United States
• Swiss Post ad announcing use of an ETOE
• Belgian Post ETOE note