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July 22, 2022
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- Shippers and shippers ask the
EU Commission to put its hand back to the exemption regulation for
category for containerized shipping companies
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- Urge an urgent review of the rules
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Shippers and shippers try again. Today ten associations
representing these categories as well as other operators of the
maritime-port sector have asked the European Commission
the immediate start of a revision of the European regulation of
block exemption for shipping companies
containerized, regulation - they recalled - that exempts these
maritime carriers from many of the checks and balances provided
eu competition law and allows them
- denounced the ten associations - to exchange
commercially sensitive information in order to manage the number
and the capacity of the ships used and the frequency and dates
departures of ships used on trade routes in
all over the world.-
- In their letter to the Commission in which they ask that
the regulation, which was signed by
CLECAT, FEPORT, European Shippers' Council, European Barge Union,
Global Shippers' Forum, European Tugowners Association, UIRR, FIATA,
International Association of Movers and FIDI Global Alliance, yes
recalls that the Regulation was last renewed in 2020
(
of 24
March 2020) and it is underlined that since then European companies and
other parts of the supply chain have had to endure the considerable
inefficiencies of container shipping, with many
departures of ships that have been cancelled or that have been
diverted to other ports or with ports that have been "skipped"
from maritime services. To this was added, in the
at the same time, an exceptional increase in the price of sea freight, tariffs that for
many routes have more than quadrupled and continue to
stay at a level three to four times higher than
that of 2019, before the pandemic.-
- "The effects of lockdowns on the production of goods and
shifts in demand due to the effects of the
Covid - the ten associations have detected - have certainly been
significant, but the capacity of the transport sector
maritime to collectively manage these impacts, and at the same time
to produce profits totaling over 186 billion dollars
in 2021, at the expense of the remaining part of the supply chain and, in
lastly, european consumers, it shows that something is wrong. The
benefits of exemptions from the general legislation on
competition enjoyed by shipping companies are not
equally distributed between the companies and the rest of the economy, and this
in itself constitutes a valid reason why the exemption
by category should be reviewed urgently'.
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- In the letter the associations highlight that the investigations
conducted in the United States by the Federal Maritime Commission have
led to the recent passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act
(
of 14
June 2022), legislation that addresses many of the complaints of the
customers and service providers of shipping companies
containerized.-
- The ten associations concluded by noting that the review
of the Regulation will allow all interested parties to
present evidence and arguments on how the European Commission
should take action to ensure that the transport market
containerised maritime operates fairly and transparently, and this
should include the examination of new measures and mechanisms that
should be assessed and implemented before the expiry of the
regulation currently in force scheduled for April 2024.
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- Via Raffaele Paolucci 17r/19r - 16129 Genoa - ITALY
phone: +39.010.2462122, fax: +39.010.2516768, e-mail
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