GSF hails Lanka's trade reforms
The Global Shippers' Forum (GSF) has welcomed the recent intervention
by the Sri Lankan government in introducing reforms to ensure fair
trading practices. Shippers in Africa, Asia, the Indian sub-continent
and South America are calling for urgent action on unsubstantiated
shipping charges and surcharges.
Shippers are demanding greater transparency in shipping charges,
including terminal handling charges and a plethora of surcharges they do
not believe reflect the real costs of the 'services' provided.
The Global Shippers' Forum (GSF) has welcomed the recent intervention
by the Sri Lankan government in introducing reforms to ensure fair
trading practices. In response to protracted lobbying by the Sri Lanka
Shippers' Council to address unfair trade practices prevailing in the
shipping industry in Sri Lanka over many years, the government acted to
strengthen the powers of the Director General of Merchant Shipping to
deal with anti-competitive practices, unfair charges and to create
greater transparency in shipping charges.
Secretary-General of the Global Shippers' Forum, Chris Welsh said,
"The proposed Sri Lanka reforms are likely to be a catalyst for wider
demands, especially in the developing world, for greater regulatory
monitoring of liner shipping and shipping charge practices where
anti-trust exemptions remain in place."
"In the absence of effective competition in many regions of the
world, there is a growing belief that tougher controls on liner shipping
are needed to regulate carrier practices relating to freight tariffs to
provide much needed transparency into shipping charges and surcharges,"
he said.
"The GSF favours a market-led and fair competition approach to ensure
open and competitive ocean transportation markets. However, in the
absence of open and competitive markets it is increasingly likely that
shippers will demand new regulatory agencies," said Welsh.
|