Dive Brief:
- Members of the Global Shippers Forum trade group aim to stop imposition of container shipping surcharges on their goods by 2020. Some shipping lines and freight forwarders impose the charges, the GSF says, calling the fees often arbitrary and unrelated to true shipping costs.
- The GSF recently said it would reach out to various global organizations to make them aware of the surcharges and of what it says are the damaging effects on world trade. Surcharges sometimes exceed contracted transport prices, making total costs unpredictable for cargo owners, the group says.
- Shipping lines and forwarders sometimes threaten not to transport containers if the surcharges haven’t been paid, according to the GSF.
Dive Insight:
"Shippers of goods around the world have had enough of demands made by carriers and forwarders for the payment of charges that are poorly explained or out of proportion for any service provided,” said Chris Welsh, secretary general of the Global Shippers Forum.
“Our campaign will expose the extent of surcharging and make it an issue in future trading agreements," he added. "At times of subdued economic growth this is damaging to world trade and causing distortions in local markets.”
The group has promised to bring the issue to the attention of the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, the International Chamber of Commerce and name and shame the worst perpetrators of unjustified surcharges in the hopes of ending the practice by 2020.
The British International Freight Association, a UK freight forwarding and logistics trade group, recently joined the call to end the shipping surcharges in solidarity with the global trade forum.
“If a shipper enters a contract to buy goods they should know exactly what they are paying and that price should not change," said Robert Keen, Director General of the British association. “Why are our members – and ultimately their customers, the shippers – being asked to pay extra for services which the port should provide as part of the contract?”
