Thanks for that. I've shipped internationally with UPS several times and shipping always stayed within the UPS network. I thought it might be something new in this Supply Chain Crisis era.
It's significant money for a 20-pound box with that UPS fuel surcharge that the post office doesn't charge. EMS (the post office) and Global Express is a lot cheaper.
Does FedEx do this too? The FedEx quote I got was about the same as UPS before I chose UPS.