ESC WANTS TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ?REVISED TACA?

ESC WANTS TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ôREVISED TACAö    The European Shippers’ Council said it wants to find out more about how the so-called “revised Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement” will protect the confidentiality of service contracts, following the European Commission's Nov. 14 decision to clear the agreement.
   The maintenance of full confidentiality for individual confidential service contracts is “a key issue for shippers,” the Brussels-based shipper group said. The European Shippers’ Council said it is looking forward to learn from the European Commission how it proposes to monitor TACA’s activities “to prevent it from abusing its position.”
   In EC's announcement of its decision to allow the revised TACA, commission said TACA members “have agreed to place strict limits on the nature and amount of commercially sensitive information that can be exchanged between members.”
   The European Shippers’ Council also welcomed the European Commission’s commitment to review European Union’s competition legislation, including the antitrust exemption of ocean carriers’ conferences.
   “The commission has again underlined the necessity of this review, given the fact that no review of the block exemption has been undertaken in more than 15 years that it has been in force,” the ESC said. “Since this time market conditions have changed dramatically.”
   The ESC believes the European Commission’s decision to allow the revised transatlantic conference agreement is an individual case, and should not be seen as a precedent.
   The main conclusions are not automatically transposable to other trades, according to the shipper body. “This prevents the decision from becoming a blueprint for other trade lanes where conferences operate on less competitive markets,” the ESC said.