TIA CHIEF SAYS OECD WILL BEAT U.S. IN RESOLVING ANTITRUST ISSUE

TIA CHIEF SAYS OECD WILL BEAT U.S. IN RESOLVING ANTITRUST ISSUE       The future of antitrust immunity for ocean carriers will be settled in Europe by the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development, before it is resolved in the United States, Bob Voltmann, executive director of the Transportation Intermediaries Association predicted.
   Speaking informally to transportation editors at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Voltmann refrained from predicting how the OECD would come down on the issue.
   The drive to repeal antitrust immunity recently was revived in the U.S. Congress when Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation that would end the right of ocean carriers to set rates in conferences and to voluntarily agree on rates and services in discussion agreements.
   Voltmann said his the TIA will focus more on doing-business activities than most Washington lobbying groups. However, the TIA will remain active in its opposition to continuing antitrust immunity, both in Washington and before the OECD, he added.
   Voltmann predicts U.S. transportation intermediaries will become more like their European counterparts who are now handling all transportation functions for their customers. “Our battle-cry is ‘don’t leave freight behind,' ' he said.