U.S. FMC KEEPS TRANSPACIFIC TRADE PROBE ALIVE

U.S. FMC KEEPS TRANSPACIFIC TRADE PROBE ALIVE

      U.S. Federal Maritime Commission chairman Hal Creel said his agency will continue to investigate conditions in the transpacific trade, despite the fact that the commission officially ended the investigation late last year.

      “Other cases relating to this controversy are still being pursued,” Creel said. “The fact that we issued a report at the end of the year to summarize activities to date, and to terminate the formal proceeding, does not indicate we are washing our hands of the issue.”

      Creel took note that some shippers    are disappointed that the FMC failed to fine the eastbound transpacific carriers even though they were found guilty of opting out of service contracts during the peak holiday shipping season in 1998.

      The reluctance of many shippers to come forward with evidence of carrier wrong-doing, “severely hampered”    the FMC’s using the investigation as a base to develop specific evidence of carrier violations, Creel said.

      However, the investigation produced positive results, including a new precedent clearly stating that opting out of service contact rates in favor of higher tariff rates is illegal “across the board,” Creel said.

Furthermore, the investigation brought into public focus and served as a warning to carriers regarding the FMC’s view of the legal bounds of carrier responses to high demand for cargo space, Creel said.