I just wonder why that is? Like I say no slam on our Canadian friends. I've never been there, is the infrastructure that much different than the US in the non Artic regions? Australia same way. Thats the place where I don't want to ship anything.
Not sure about Canada, but I suspect increased shipping costs to Australia might be due to the Pacific Ocean and the tyranny of distance.
The overall lower volume of mail to Australia (less people and all) probably doesn't help either.
AusPost is relatively good though, although like everyone else it has its fair share of screwups. FWIW, once I had a package shipped EMI (to Australia, USPS says normally 3-5 days) take double that time just to get from the US to Australia. Then a couple of days to go through customs and get shipped up from Melbourne to Sydney.
The problem are the SCAMMERS out there.
They order stuff from a different country via USPS, when they get notification it is waiting for them at customs, they wait for a while, then complain to Paypal/CC companyAmazon they did not receive the goods. The seller us not able to provide proof the goods are delivered, Paypal/CC company/Amazon withdraws the money from the sellers account. After the scammers got their money back, they go down to customs and pick up their parcel. So the seller is out both money and goods, UPS/FEDEX etc. prepays customs and delivers to the door. SIGNATURE PLEASE. Proof of delivery.
The other problem is the customs declaration. You can fill up the form online with UPS then UPS sends a truck around to pick up the parcel. With USPS you need the right account with them before you can do that. Most small vendors do not have said account, nor do they have the time to go down to the post office and wait in line. So they take the easy way out - UPS.
Bigger companies like DX have the right type of account (with HK post). Note how the address, customs, postage are all printed on the same piece of paper. And if your order is over $10 you have to sign for it.
That is also why a lot of CPF members will only ship CONUS. But that subject has its own thread.