ELAA expected EU decision on conferences, hopeful over proposals

ELAA expected EU decision on conferences, hopeful over proposals    The European Liner Affairs Association, the Brussels-based ocean carrier lobby group, said it was expecting the decision Monday by European Union ministers to repeal Regulation 4056/86, which grants liner conferences an exemption to fix freight rates and cooperate on capacity. But the ELAA remains hopeful its alternative proposal could still form the basis of any replacement model.
   The ELAA in June put forward its second proposal for a replacement model that it feels is vital to ensure stable rates and reliable services, but which has faced widespread condemnation from international shipper bodies.
   Existing liner conferences will be able to continue operating on routes to and from Europe until October 2008, before which the EC will publish guidelines on the application of the competition rules to the sector, including any replacement model.
   “The proposal also relinquishes price fixing and other industry tools; it suggests a modernized regime of pro-competitive information exchange that will benefit carriers, shippers, freight forwarders and consumers alike. This regime will achieve the European Commission’s vision of improved reliability and high quality liner shipping services at competitive rates,” the ELAA said in a statement.
   “It is in all our interests to make sure that there is sufficient but not too much capacity deployed on trades to and from Europe,” said Chris Bourne, the ELAA’s executive director.
   “The liner industry now looks forward to the forthcoming publication of the Commission’s Issues Paper, which will assess the ELAA proposal. This will further encourage the ongoing debate between lines and shippers over the appropriate regime to replace the conference system. In this respect ELAA has been developing closer contacts with the European Shippers’ Council,” the ELAA said.
   The United Kingdom’s Freight Transport Association, which represents British shippers and logistics companies, and has been one of the main campaigners against the conference system, said after the council’s decision: “This is a landmark day for the container shipping industry — it is the day when the customer’s voice is finally allowed to be heard.”
   “From 2008 container shipping lines operating into and out of EU ports will need to conform to the competition rules that are imposed on almost all other commercial entities in Europe, and respect the rights of their customers to confidential contracts and end their practices of sharing pricing information.
   “It has been an anomaly that shippers and cargo owners have not had access to these rights under EU law for so long. Today’s decision by the Competitiveness Council restores that balance and we now enter a new era of dialogue between shippers and carriers,” the FTA said.
   In a separate development, the FTA has appointed Roman Russocki to the new role of general manager, strategic policy campaigns. Russocki was chief executive of The Academy of Youth, a British educational charity.
   Andrew Traill, the FTA’s former head of maritime policy left in the summer to start The Shippers’ Voice Ltd., and has subsequently joined the European Shippers’ Council to offer help and advice on policy issues.