TSA revises terms of cooperative agreement

TSA revises terms of cooperative agreement    The Transpacific Stabilization Agreement has filed a revised agreement with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to comply with a compromise reached with the agency on Sept. 11.
   The amendment to the 15-carrier cooperative agreement deletes the Indian Subcontinent from the geographic scope of the agreement and revises “various communications and meeting processes” under the agreement, the FMC said.
   After a one-year investigation of alleged anti-competitive practices of transpacific carriers, the FMC and the TSA entered into a settlement last month that commits the carrier group to remove the Indian
Subcontinent from the scope of its agreement, refrain from agreeing on
contractual guidelines that discriminate between non-vessel-operating common carriers and direct shippers or deal exclusively with NVOCCs, and remove the right of TSA to agree on capacity rationalization for a period of three years.
   As part of the September settlement, the TSA carrier group also agreed to pay a fine of $1.35 million, but did not admit that it broke regulations.
   The carriers of the TSA are APL, CMA CGM, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen Marine Corp., Hanjin Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, “K” Line, Maersk Sealand, MOL, NYK, Orient Overseas Container Line, P&O Nedlloyd and Yang Ming Marine.