Press release

Organizations representing shippers from the three major trading areas of the world -Asia, Europe, and North America - convened last week in Margaux, France, celebrating the tenth annual Tripartite Shippers' Meeting. This year's meeting was hosted by the European Shippers’ Council. A Joint Declaration summarizing the activities of the group was issued at the conclusion of the meeting.

Conferences must end

One of the first orders of business for the Tripartite Shippers' Group (TSG) was to pledge support for the review of Council Regulation 4056/86, the main competition rule in Europe governing maritime transport. The TSG believes that the primary function and role of conferences and discussion agreements have far outlived their original purpose. In today’s marketplace, collective pricing for services has been eliminated in every other industry except liner shipping. The TSG reaffirmed its support for the elimination of this extraordinary privilege of limited antitrust immunity that permits liner conferences and discussion agreements to set rates and services.

The objective of the Commission’s review should be to bring about reforms which recognize that pricing should be individually set based on a carrier’s individual costs calculated with a fair return on investment and reasonable profit. The TSG feels that the EU’s deliberations into its liner regulatory framework should proceed as deliberately and expeditiously as possible.

IATA resolution will increase costs by 20 per cent

Delegates heard that the impact of IATA’s Resolution 502 could cost industry world-wide $5 billion and raise shippers’ costs as much as 25 per cent.

The TSG reaffirmed the position of the group adopted at the 2002 meeting opposing implementation of IATA Resolution 502 targeting low density cargo. As with ocean conferences and agreements, the TSG believes pricing for air cargo should be made individually by carriers based on “marketplace” considerations. Pricing schemes based on those protected from the antitrust laws results in poor business practices and severe impairment for users. The TSG will continue to oppose this effort and will communicate on matters of particular significance.

TSG demands a standard security framework in fight against terror

Following a briefing by the European Commission on Intermodal Transport Security, the shipper delegates reconfirmed that their respective governments and industries must work as partners to ensure that new security standards will meet their intended purposes without impeding the efficiencies and economies of scale that shippers have come to rely upon.

The TSG included in its Declaration support to: several Programs that identify “high risk” cargoes that could present a threat to life, infrastructure and the over-all supply chain; promotion of new technologies which will supplement existing security safeguardsthe need to develop a global security system compatible over all transportation modes: the establishment of a Standard Security Framework based on the Known Shipper concept for the world’s major trading partners, and programs which will produce a safe and secure supply chain in which the costs are equitably shared among all parties involved.

Tripartite Support Cargo 2000’s Key Performance Indicators

Shippers should be able to see air freight business cost reductions if their carriers and forwarders participate in the KPI or Service Performance Indicator (SPI) work entering Phase two of its implementation.

Arising out of work started by shippers, carriers and forwarders in the UK and then Europe in the mid 1990s, Cargo 2000 have taken on the responsibility of integrating SPIs into overall operating KPIs developed by the air freight interest group within IATA.

The TSG agreed to fully continue its full support for Cargo 2000 in this work and urged the industry to give it their full support also.

Conclusion

In conclusion the TSG said it intends to broaden its influence in the years ahead by inviting other shipper groups to join its ranks. Working together the TSG is likely to produce beneficial changes that will only serve to enhance world trade for today and into the future.

Participating in the 2003 Tripartite Shippers Meeting were: the National Industrial Transportation League; European Shippers' Council; Japan Shippers' Council; Korean Shippers' Council; Philippines Shippers' Bureau; The Hong Kong Shippers' Council; The Thai National Shippers' Council, the Singapore National Shippers’ Council and, The Federation of ASEAN Shippers' Councils.

2003 Joint Shippers' Declaration

For further information contact: Nicolette van der Jagt, Secretary General of the ESC - Brussels 00 322 230 2113