China unveils new forwarder standards

China unveils new forwarder standards The Chinese government has issued new standards for its domestic freight forwarding industry, the Hong Kong Shipping Gazette reported Tuesday.
   The new standards govern service procedures, quality, terms and conditions, statistical survey conduction, freight forwarder qualifications and assessment criteria and were drafted by the China International Freight Forwarders Association and approved by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
   Sinotrans, China Shipping and Sinosteel Corp. participated in the drafting, the report said.
   'The standards are said to secure fast and healthy development of the domestic freight forwarding industry by providing guidelines for government’s policy making and regulation,' the report said. 'Another five sets of standards are also on the way to be issued on manifest and documentation, documentation coding approach, information and data exchange and risk assessment. The drafting of these standards is expected to be done in next year and will facilitate the establishment of a public freight forwarding information portal.'