Better Know the restrictions

These days, USPS (United States Postal Service) is quite active as they are coming out with new products and services on regular basis to meet changing needs of customers. Recently they introduced Large Flat Rate Box for domestic and International Priority mail giving customers option other than Regular Flat Rate box. They also started Sunday delivery with Express mail. This is one of only its kind offering in Parcel industry as none of big three UPS, FedEx, DHL offer Sunday delivery.
USPS has been taking right steps after momentous Postal law signed by President Bush last year to fight with other carriers as they cannot sustain the business by just delivering letters to each and every zip code from Alaska to SanDeigo.
They have to compete aggressively with other carriers in profitable business of Parcels and their moves are in right direction.
I will transition to another topic which actually prompted me to write today. Few days back, I was surprised to read some of the restrictions that various countries place on Shipments coming inside their borders ( http://www.usps.com/mailpro/2008/janfeb/janfeb.pdf )

Here are some of seemingly absurd restrictions that I found.:
Australia: Goods bearing the name “Anzac.”
Costa Rica: Blank invoices.
Ireland: Hay, straw, including articles made of straw.
Latvia: Live animals except bees and leeches.
Russia: Color copiers.
Switzerland: Mini-spies (miniature wireless transmitters).
Tunisia: Playing cards.
Countries generally disallow arms, ammunitions, explosives and hazardous substances that are identified by United Nations. But what’s wrong with Anzac? And why is Hay is restricted by Ireland? Funnily, Latvia restricts live animals with exception of bees and leeches and Russia doesn’t want color printers to be sent to them. Perhaps, they are happy with monocolor printing.