A Surcharge must be Involved in the General Rates

The Tripartite Shippers Meeting, a meeting of shippers' councils in Ko
rea, Japan and Hong Kong, had a meeting on June 22 to 23rd at the ASEM
Convention Center in Seoul hosted by the Korea Shipper's Council. The
y had discussions over transparency in calculating the surcharge. Like
wise, they discussed transparency in Terminal Handling Charges (THC) a
nd Bunker Adjustment Factors (BAF). They also exchanged opinions on An
ti Trust Immunity.
They all agreed that surgcharges like the THC and BAF, and peak season
surcharges (PSS) created undue financial burdens for shippers. Most o
f all, they insisted that shipping associations in each trade lacked t
he transparency to calculate the surcharge rates and took more freight
rates from shippers. They also discussed genral rates involving the s
urcharges - the THC and BAF- for a long time period.
The Tripartite Shippers Meeting also urged that shipping associations
enter into serious rates negotiations with shipper's councils based o
n a system of free competition in shipping industries. The shipper's c
ouncils positively supported the revised plans on the Anti - Trust com
munity which were already discussed in the OECD. They decided to spre
ad out legislative revision activities to eliminate anti - competition
measures and monopolistic abuse by shipping associations.