New U.S./India discussion agreement

New U.S./India discussion agreement    A new-style discussion agreement between ocean carriers may soon operate in the United States/Indian subcontinent transpacific trade, after a gap of about a year.
   Evergreen Marine Corp., Hapag-Lloyd, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and P&O Nedlloyd have notified the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission that they are setting up a discussion agreement in the U.S./Indian subcontinent trade.
   The FMC said the agreement authorizes the carriers “to exchange information and discuss and reach voluntary agreement on (a) variety of commercial issues” in the trade. The geographic scope of the agreement is from ports and points in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to all ports and points in the United States.
   The agreement, filed with the FMC, can be blocked by the agency on competition grounds.
   Another carrier group, called Indamex, is also believed to operate as a discussion agreement in the U.S./Indian subcontinent trade. The Indamex carriers are Contship Containerlines, CMA CGM and the Shipping Corporation of India.
   The U.S./India trade used to be part of the geographic scope of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, a carrier group to which Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK and P&O Nedlloyd belong. However, the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement and the FMC reached a settlement last year to remove the Indian subcontinent from the scope of the TSA agreement. The settlement followed a high-profile investigation by the FMC into alleged service contract malpractices in the transpacific.
   The reaction of the FMC to the new discussion agreement is not known.