TT Club supports Rotterdam Rules

TT Club supports Rotterdam Rules    Mutual insurer TT Club has issued a statement of support for the Rotterdam Rules.
   “The TT Club welcomes the harmonization, transparency and modernization of transport liability systems which the Rotterdam Rules will bring if ratified by the major trading nations, and in particular is supportive of the attempt to create a uniform and global liability regime,” it said in a statement issued Monday.
   “The club recognizes that, as with the introduction of any major piece of legislation, the rules will bring with them uncertainty in the early stages of adoption and will, in some quarters of the international transport world, not be seen as a positive development of the liability regime,” it said. “Therefore, to help generate a clear understanding of the impact that the new rules might have, TT Club will be organizing a series of seminars for members and their brokers at key locations around the world this autumn.”
   The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea, known as the Rotterdam Rules, in December, and a signing ceremony will be held in Rotterdam in September. Rotterdam Rules will then be open for ratification by member states and will come into force one year after such ratification by at least 20 states.
   It has been supported by both the World Shipping Council and the National Industrial Transportation League, but European Shippers Council has been critical of the convention.
   Last month the European Community Shipowners Association said in its newsletter that it “fully supports the Rotterdam rules as they provide for the necessary legal certainty and uniformity on cargo liability at international level.”