FMC drops requirement for Japan reports

FMC drops requirement for Japan reports    The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has decided to discontinue a 13-year-old proceeding involving Japanese ports and shipping that required five container lines in the U.S./Japan trade to submit semi-annual reports.
   The FMC said in an order on Wednesday that while it “continues to have concerns regarding the Japanese licensing requirements for new entrants in the terminal services industry and the system of prior consultation” for carrier service changes in Japan, the most efficient course of action was to terminate the proceeding and reporting requirements.
   The FMC said it is still “encouraging the industry and shipping public to report any new restrictions or disputes affecting shipping in the U.S.-Japan trades as they arise.”
   FMC has been receiving reports from the big three Japanese container carriers — “K” Line, MOL and NYK — as well as APL and Maersk Line.
   Since 2001, it said those reports “suggest that the potential benefits of continuing the proceeding and its semi-annual reporting requirements no longer justify the accompanying regulatory burdens on the affected ocean carriers.”
   It said that it has received reports of improvements at Japanese ports in 2001 and 2002.
   In 2001 the Japan Harbor Transportation Association (JHTA) and Japanese longshore unions reached an agreement that ended restrictions on Sunday and evening hours and allows ships to be worked 24 hours a day, 364 days a year.
   In 2002, the JHTA and longshore unions agreed to revise and simplify a process that required prior consultation before making major or minor operational changes. The 2002 reform require prior consultation only for three types of major matters that change the work system at a container berth, and other changes receive consent within a week.
   The FMC also noted that a non-Japanese firm, PSA International Pte Ltd., which like APL is owned and controlled by the government of Singapore, started operating the Hibiki Container Terminal in the port of Port of Kitakyushu.
   The FMC said it would remain watchful for unfavorable conditions that harm the U.S./Japan oceanborne trade. ' Chris Dupin