Who speaks for shippers?

Who speaks for shippers? Global Shippers' Forum aims to influence policymakers on international, intergovernmental bodies.

By Chris Dupin

   After years of existence as a loosely organized group of national and regional organizations representing shippers, the Global Shippers' Forum (GSF) in May announced it was taking steps to become a 'better organized, coordinated and consistent global voice for shippers on key issues impacting global transport.'
   The group has reorganized itself as a not-for-profit corporation in the United Kingdom, and is seeking accreditation as a non-governmental organization.
   'With international NGO status in hand we will be able to more fully participate in the key international bodies where decisions are taken which impact shippers everywhere,' said Chris Welsh, the GSF's secretary general.
   Most GSF members felt 'if we aspire to be truly a global representative of this body of shippers to influence policymakers at the highest levels, particularly with the intergovernmental groups, then we need to take it a step further,' he said.

Carlton

   'Shippers pay the bill in all modes of transportation,' said Bruce Carlton, president and chief executive officer of the National Industrial Transportation League. 'Decisions made by carriers, governments, and international and intergovernmental organizations on the environment, safety, security and underlying competitive framework will have a direct impact on shippers' balance sheets and income statements.'
   However, the European Shippers Council, which had been one of the founding members of the GSF, decided not to join the reconstituted group, leading to questions about how successful the new GSF will be in speaking for the world's shippers.
   ESC has a membership of about a dozen national shippers groups and industry-specific organizations for chemicals and forest products. However two European shipper groups did sign on as part of the new GSF, the United Kingdom's Freight Transport Forum and its affiliate FTA Ireland. Welsh is also the FTA's general manager for global and European policy.
   Nicolette van der Jagt, secretary general of ESC, said her group's decision was not based on any policy disagreement, but just a different view of how the GSF should be organized going forward.

Traill

   It was 'a difficult decision taken by the ESC members on internal matters on how the GSF is proposed to be organized,' said Andrew Traill, who runs the independent Shippers Voice Web site, but also works contractually as policy director for ESC.

'99% Agreement.' While there was some concern with ESC not joining might create misperception of disagreement among the shipper groups, Traill thinks the reality is that, with '99 percent of all policies there is very comprehensive agreement among all the shipper representative groups around the world.'
   The decision not to stay part of the GSF was a bottom-up decision by the various groups that make up ESC, Traill said. Most were happy with the way the organization had been operating until the other members decided that the group should become more formal.
   Philippe Bonnevie, national secretary of the French Shippers Council/AUTF, said, 'My organization was actually very concerned by the decision to opt out of the GSF, and we have been very sorry to have to take it jointly with all national European councils.
   'The reasons for opting out were multiple: the structure of the GSF, its constitution, its activities were some. Our concern on the proposed plan for financing the GSF was not of the least importance,' he said.
   He felt ESC has been the 'policy spearhead' on issues such as repeal of the antitrust immunity for maritime carriers.
   In 2008, the European Union ended the block exemption giving antitrust immunity for shipping conferences.
   John Lu, chairman of the Asian Shippers Forum, said, 'freely competitive markets in all modes of transport are at the top of our agenda.
   'We of course endorsed the EU's termination of its block exemption of the shipping industry from their competition laws, and we seek similar action in Asia and the United States,' Lu said.
   'As far as the rest of us could tell the European Shippers Council felt the Global Shippers' Forum should continue as just an unincorporated 'talk shop' to meet once a year and talk about things, where everybody else felt that if the GSF was really going to be helpful to the shipper community on a global basis then it needed to have a bit more structure and be recognized as an NGO,' said Robert Ballantyne, president of the Canadian Industrial Transportation Association and chairman of the newly incorporated global body.

'We will be able to more fully participate in the key international bodies where decisions are taken which impact shippers everywhere.'

Chris Welch secretary general, Global Shippers' Forum

   He said there was 'hope that either the full European Shippers Council or at least some of the national associations within the ESC will decide it would be helpful to belong to a global body and that they will come back.'
   The group's objectives are to 'promote a safe, secure and competitive freight transportation system that will enhance global trade and prosperity.'

Direct Link To Shippers. Going forward, Welsh said GSF plans to also have direct involvement with individual shippers as well as associations ' not for policy and political matters ' but for distribution of 'best practices,' information and tools to help shippers do their jobs better.
   At the same time, on the policy front, Welsh said there are 'a number of pressing issues being discussed where GSF feels NGO status will be particularly useful.'
   These include proposals having to do with overweight containers and safe stowage of containers at the International Maritime Organization and International Labor Organization.
   In December, the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee agreed to a proposal to establish a new work item to address the issue of incorrectly declared containerized cargo shipments and to undertake other measures to improve the safety of container stowage and ship operations.
   The group also wants a voice at the World Customs Organization and has been invited to be a member of the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group by the International Air Transport Association, International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations, and The International Air Cargo Association. GSF's role on the advisory group would be to represent shippers on issues having to do with air cargo security.
   Traill said ESC will continue to represent shippers on the continent, and may work closely with GSF on an item-by-item basis.
   GSF, was formed in 2006 and grew out of the Tripartite Shippers' Group, which consisted of the European Shippers' Council, NIT League and Japan Shippers' Council in 1994 with the purpose of dismantling liner carrier cartels.

Peter Gatti executive vice president, National Industrial Transportation League
'Policy initiatives take place that heses international bodies ' and the only way you can get teeth behind the initiative is if you are identified as a (non-governmental organization).'

   Peter Gatti, NIT League's executive vice president, said that while the GSF would hold annual meetings and issue proclamations on common goals, 'there was no teeth on how you accomplish these. One group would take the lead, and others would provide supporting letters, but it was determined a lot of these policy initiatives take place at these international bodies ' and the only way you can get teeth behind the initiatives is if you are identified as a NGO.'
   Gatti said international organizations 'steer a lot of these policy initiatives' and that suppliers ' the shipping companies ' have always been represented at many of those groups.
   National groups like the NIT League will still be the primary shipper voice in debates over national issues, GSF said.

Into The Fray. Days after announcing its formation, the reconstituted GSF waded into the debate over how to reduce the production of greenhouse gases by the shipping industry.
   GSF said it would 'oppose any steps by the global shipping industry to impose a bunker levy on shippers as the means of raising money to fund an environmental compensation scheme to meet their climate change responsibilities to reduce carbon emissions.'
   'Merely passing on shipping carbon costs to their customers via a bunker levy not only removes ship owner accountability but will not reduce carbon emissions,' Welsh said.
   Simon Bennett, director of external affairs for the International Chamber of Shipping, said his group was 'slightly nonplussed by some of the statements from GSF.'
   Proposals to reduce production of greenhouse gases, including the adoption of mandatory energy efficiency design standards for new ships, will be discussed by the IMO's Maritime Environment Protection Committee in July.
   Sources say much of the shipping industry generally supports that idea, as do many developed countries. But other developing countries are said to be opposed, fearing it would create a precedent of an international organization limiting carbon emissions.
   GSF claimed the ICS had 'unveiled plans to develop a bunker levy scheme' that could collect billions of dollars, and planned to 'lobby the IMO to accept such a scheme as a means of heading off regional regulation, including emissions trading schemes.'
   Bennett said his group was 'not proposing or imposing anything,' but expressing a preference for a market-based measure based upon levy/compensation fund principles, as already proposed at IMO, rather than competing proposals for emission trading schemes.
   The United Kingdom and Norway have proposed emission-trading schemes at the IMO that some ship owners feel would be overly complex. There are also two competing proposals for taxes or levies on bunker fuel ' one from Denmark and the other a joint proposal by the Japanese government and the World Shipping Council (WSC), which represents the liner shipping industry.
   Shipper groups believe their position is actually more in line with what GSF wants than the proponents of emission trading schemes.
   'Ship owners need to introduce a rigorous scheme targeting operational efficiencies and other measures to reduce shipping carbon emissions,' Welsh said.
   WSC said the plan it and Japan have proposed would provide incentives for ship owners to operate more efficient vessels, and exempt ships that meet certain standards from levies, eventually resulting in 'a global fleet that is significantly more efficient and carbon-friendly than today's ships.'
   Bennett said ICS has already set a target of reducing emissions per ton-mile by at least 20 percent by 2020.
   In another high profile debate, Gatti said shippers were troubled with the way the issue of misdeclared container weights has been handled.
   He said GSF was asked to develop a set of voluntary best practices, but then the WSC and ICS introduced their proposals to the IMO last year.
   'Nobody is condoning mischaracterization of container weights,' Gatti said, but the GSF was concerned with the approach taken, which 'lays out punitive measures without really trying to educate the industry, which was the approach ICS took two years ago.'

Increasingly Comprehensive. The GSF had a more comprehensive membership than the Tripartite Shippers Group, bringing in members from throughout Asia and other parts of the world.
   Welsh said that going forward there are more than 40 countries that are members of the GSF.
   In addition to the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, it includes the Asian Shippers Council with 20 shippers' councils from 16 countries in Asia and Oceania; 22 members from the Union of African Shippers Councils; and 16 members from the South Africa Shippers Council.
   The Argentina Shippers Council is due to join the GSF when it holds its first meeting, to be hosted by the NIT League in Atlanta Nov. 15-17.
   Members of the new GSF board include Carlton, Ballantyne, Lu and James Hookham, managing director of policy and communications of the U.K. Freight Transport Association.