Study of the 2008 Repeal of the Liner Conference Exemption from European Union Competiton Law.

摘要

The Bureau embarked on this Study with the understanding that the global recession had a considerable impact on international trade in 2008-2009 and would present a major challenge to any effort to determine the impact of the EU repeal. To address that challenge, the Bureau focused the Study on the three main East/West liner trades and, in particular, a comparative assessment of two somewhat similar Asia-based trades the Far East/United States trade and the Far East/North Europe trade. The Study begins with an explanation of its origins; provides background on the Study's EU and US legislative contexts; differentiates this Study from a number of relatively recent liner carrier antitrust reviews; and explains the analytical methods used. The heart of the Bureaus research appears in Chapters Five and Six the market analyses of the three major East/West trades and, in particular, the results of difference-in-differences estimations that compare the two largest of those trades. Chapter Seven presents the Study findings. In the course of its research, the Bureau relied on a broad range of informational sources including PIERS, AlphaLiner, Drewry, Eurostat, Containerisation International, as well as the Commission's own internal data sources such as filed service contracts and quarterly monitoring reports. Useful information was also provided by respondents to the Commissions November 1, 2010 Notice of Inquiry, and a variety of trade press, carrier, and carrier agreement websites. In particular, we would like to acknowledge and thank the Shanghai Shipping Exchange for its assistance in providing the Bureau with helpful data on Asia-based trades.