WITNESSES PICKED FOR HOUSE ANTITRUST IMMUNITY HEARING

WITNESSES PICKED FOR HOUSE ANTITRUST IMMUNITY HEARING    The House Judiciary Committee has put together its list of witnesses to testify at a June 5 hearing in Washington about whether or not to abolish ocean carrier antitrust immunity in the U.S. shipping law.
   The witnesses are James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Robert E. Coleman, chairman of the Pacific Coast Council (PCC) of Customs Brokers & Freight Forwarders Association; and Christopher Koch, president and chief executive officer of the World Shipping Council. Charles A. James, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division is expected to testify on behalf of the administration.
   The hearing will consider the 2001 Free Market Antitrust Immunity Reform (FAIR) Act (H.R. 1253), which calls for eliminating ocean carrier antitrust immunity in the 1998 Ocean Shipping Reform Act.
   For more details about the antitrust immunity debate, access the June 2002 issue of American Shipper on line at https://www.AmericanShipper.com.