CANADIAN SHIPPERS’ COUNCIL IS DISSOLVED
The Canadian Shippers’ Council, a Montreal-based body that has represented the interests of Canadian maritime shippers for 36 years, will be dissolved on Jan. 31.
The Canadian Shippers’ Council was also recognized by the ministry of transport of Canada under the Shipping Conferences Exemption Act 1987, Canada’s main liner shipping competition legislation.
The council was managed on a part-time basis by Walter Mueller, its long-time secretary.
The Canadian Shippers’ Council was a federation of national shippers’ organizations, whose main concern has been the availability of competitive international liner shipping transportation.
In recent years, the Canadian Shippers’ Council had campaigned for a reform of the Shipping Conferences Exemption Act 1987 along the lines of the U.S. Ocean Shipping Reform Act. Many of the requests of the council were incorporated in the revised Shipping Conferences Exemption Act. Citing the revised legislation, the Canadian Shippers’ Council said that it has “achieved a major breakthrough in liner conference shipping, with the Shipping Conferences Exemption Act revision.”
“Since the recent revision of the Shipping Conferences Exemption Act, Canadian shippers have been able to negotiate confidential one-on-one service contracts with the conference carrier of their choice,” said Barry James, chairman of the Canadian Shippers’ Council.
“Many Canadian shippers consider that the Canadian Shippers’ Council has achieved one of its major objectives, and that the requirement for day-to-day policing of liner conference activities is no longer a high priority,” James added.
Yet, the Canadian Shippers’ Council was unable to convince Canadian government and legislators of the need to implement a “sunset clause” in their revised act to eliminate the carrier conference antitrust exemption in future.
The Canadian Shippers’ Council considers that the conference exemption should be removed, and that conference abuses still continue.
The Canadian Industrial Transportation Association will assume some of the previous activities of the Canadian Shippers’ Council.
The winding up of the Canadian Shippers’ Council follows the closure a few months ago of the Danish Shippers’ Association.