Readers who digested CI's recent examination of terminal handling charges in Australia ('Getting a handle on charges', November 2003, pp63-65) could have seen this coming. In that article, Importers Association of Australia (IAA) secretary Xoran Kostadinoski took the big stick to carriers in the East Asia-China/Australia trade. He was infuriated by a sequence of rate rises and the imposition of a peak season surcharge that allegedly combined to more than double existing freights over a three-month period. As that piece was being completed, members of the Hong Kong-based Asia Australia Discussion Agreement (AADA) imposed yet another increase - this time of US$250/TEU - on 1 October, 2003. In 1999, Australia's Productivity Commission undertook a review of Part X of the Trade Practices Act, the section that grants authorisation for shipping conferences, discussion agreements and other co-operation arrangements in outward trades. Among the review's recommendations, accepted by the government in 2000, were that discussion agreements should be treat- ed no differently from other agreements between shipping lines, and that the coverage of Part X be extended, where feasible, to inbound trades. Accordingly, the AADA (and other similar groups) was formally registered in Canberra in April 2000. Membership has subsequently changed three times, but as at October 2003, all carriers in the trade were members (see 'Parties to the AADA), with the exception of slotcharterer APL. This all-embracing coverage has undoubtedly served carriers well, but left shippers with no ability to engage in the traditional 'heroes versus villains', conference versus independents, negotiations over rates.
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