NIT League to review OSRA in 2007

NIT League to review OSRA in 2007    The National Industrial Transportation League will make an evaluation of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act a top priority in 2007.
   'Now is the time to look at OSRA,' said Peter Gatti, executive vice president of the NIT League in an interview about the group's Ocean Transportation Committee meeting this week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 'While we agree with the ocean carriers that OSRA is working well, it does not mean that it cannot work better.'
   In late September, the European Union's Competitive Council adopted the European Commission's proposal to repeal Regulation 4056/86, which allows carrier groups to set common freight rates and cooperate on capacity. Before the repeal takes effect in October 2008 the EC will draft guidelines for the ocean shipping industry to follow.
   The league was informally asked by the EU's Competitiveness Council about its shipper members' experiences with service contracts and liner carrier discussion agreements under OSRA. A survey will be sent to the league's membership early next week, Gatti said.
   Liner carriers in the U.S. trades have been exempt from the country's antitrust laws since the implementation of the 1916 Shipping Act. The privileges, which allow carriers to jointly discuss pricing without breaking the law, were carried over to the 1984 Shipping Act.
   Antitrust immunity, although more limited today, remains in place in the 1998 OSRA, and has been allegedly used by the liner carriers in discussion agreements to impose uniform surcharges and general rate increases on shippers and non-vessel-operating common carriers.
   'The maritime transportation industry today has changed significantly in the last eight years since OSRA came into effect,' Gatti said. 'We always knew that periodic reviews were going to be necessary, and in light of the impending changes in Europe those operating in the U.S. trades have got to determine whether their supply chains are operating at peak efficiency.'
   The NIT League also remains highly involved in the activities of the Global Shippers' Forum (formerly the Tripartite Shippers' Group), which comprises national shippers' councils interested in eliminating antitrust immunity for carriers worldwide.
   The Federation of ASEAN Shippers' Councils will meet in Jakarta, Indonesia, next week and one of its priorities will be to discuss the elimination of antitrust immunity in the intra-Asian liner trades. While intra-Asian trade activities have no direct bearing on U.S. shippers, the NIT League will be closely watching the outcome, Gatti said.