On the other hand, if you're in the US, your belt's shipping from China was paid for entirely, or at least heavily subsidized, by American taxpayers.

(Not sure how this varies across other non-US western countries)

What about Canadians, based on our close proximity and depending on the specific logistics, might you guys be subsidising us as well?

qwsc was referring to the almost-free international postal rates for parcels that China received from USPS when it was a struggling exporter decades ago.

As in, lower than domestic parcel rates inside the USA, typically in the range of $1 - $2.

I believe Trump mentioned considering re-negotiating that deal recently, which nobody has objected to.

It's not a subsidy specific to China. It's an international agreement to charge certain international rates for postage. It applies only to packages under a certain size and weight.

But it probably should go away. It creates this weird imbalance where shipping things from China to the US can be cheaper than shipping something to your next door neighbor.

NPR's planet money had an informative and fun episode on the topic. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/epis...