CREEL: U.S., EUROPE LINER REGULATION ON “PARALLEL” COURSE
CREEL: U.S., EUROPE LINER REGULATION ON “PARALLEL” COURSE
The U.S. Ocean Shipping Reform Act has brought the nation's regulation of liner shipping much closer with Europe's, said Hal Creel, chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.
“The two systems are so fundamentally similar, and have been moving in such complimentary directions, that the industry has been able to make the transition to a service contract-based commercial environment without encountering conflicts of laws, or other legal ambiguities and uncertainties,” Creel said last Thursday at a conference in London.
Europe and the FMC both maintain exemptions from their general competition laws for liner shipping and have no plans to change these exemptions, Creel said.
Both sides have also sought to promote competition through shippers' and carriers' rights to negotiate independent confidential service contracts. This has lead to the “explosion of independent service contracting activity that we have seen in 1999 and 2000,” he said.
The FMC still differs from European regulation by allowing discussion agreements, allowing carriers to adopt voluntary guidelines”, and to agree on common prices for the inland portion of intermodal moves.
The European Commission, on the other hand, does not require regulatory filing requirements, review and waiting periods for efficiency-enhancing consortia and operational agreements, while the FMC does, Creel said.
While OSRA “appears to be working as well as Congress expected,” Creel admits that “not everyone is happy with the results under OSRA.”
Non-vessel-operating common carriers, “apparently dissatisfied with their inability to obtain the right to offer service contracts … have instituted a two-pronged attack against the statute,” Creel said. “This is occurring at a time when NVOCC trade growth is increasing and NVOCCs account for about 20 percent of the service contracts ocean carriers filed with the commission.
The NVOs have, nevertheless, raised concerns about carriers' antitrust immunity and are backing House Judiciary Chairman's Henry Hyde's bill to repeal that immunity.
He also noted that the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America is polling its members on whether to petition the FMC for an exemption from tariff publication.
“The commission will, of course, give due consideration to any petition that may be filed,” Creel said.
The full text of Creel's speech is available at http://www.americanshipper.com/remarks_of_harold_creel.asp.