CARRIERS WARN OECD OF TRADE CHAOS

CARRIERS WARN OECD OF TRADE CHAOS    The world’s major shipping lines have warned the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development that the shipping public would be faced with chaotic trade conditions if ocean carriers lose their right to enter agreements under antitrust immunity.
   The current regime has produced many benefits — including trade stability, improved services, a wide variety of private service contracts and fair rates, members of the Washington, D.C.-based World Shipping Council said in a paper presented to the OECD.
   Without antitrust immunity, the WSC said, shippers face trade chaos, destructive competition, the loss of a wide range of carrier choices, inferior services and ultimately higher shipping rates.
   The OECD will continue its review of the issue.
   The WSC urged the OECD to turn its attention to solving much-needed landside infrastructure problems, including inland bottlenecks and other inefficiencies. The landside infrastructure is “already stretched thin…and faces enormous pressures as trade grows,” the WSC said.
   “Significant cost savings and efficiencies will not be found by changing today’s liner shipping regulatory system,” according to the WSC. “They (savings) will come from improving supply chain management, increasing predictability and reliability of shipments, and increasing the velocity of inventory through the entire supply chain.”