Common Market Transport Ministers decided earlier this year to ask EEC ambassadors in Brussels to take over discussion of Commission proposals aimed at enabling the Nine to ratify the UN liner conferences code of conduct.

Belgian Transport Minister Jos Chabert told a Press conference the Ministers had been unable to take a decision on the proposals at their two-day meeting in Brussels. They had asked the ambassadors to report on the results of their lower level consultations in the first half of 1978.

Differences of opinion between EEC member States has held up ratification of the code, still not in force, for three years. The Commission had hoped its new compromise proposals would narrow these differences and enable the Nine to reach agreement. The code is due to cover liner conference membership, cargo sharing, voting arrangements, consultation between shipowners and shippers and procedures for changing freight rates and resolving disputes.

The American Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has made a new departure in assessing penalties for receiving illegal rates. Previously, most actions for violations of the United States Shipping Act have been against carriers, freight forwarders, and those engaged in the actual shipment or carriage of goods. There has been a number of instances where shippers of goods have been charged with violations. Typical is the $20,000 fine paid in settlement by Pat Fashions, Inc., of New York. The FMC claim charged Pat Fashions and subsidiaries with receiving illegal rebates from ocean carriers on shipments of clothing and wearing apparel from the Far East, in violation of the Shipping Act of 1916, s. 16, first paragraph.

“The settlement agreement was made under provisions of the Federal Claims Collection Act, and is part of the FMC’s continuing programme to control illegal rebating in U.S. ocean trades.”

In another action, the U.S. Justice Department has acted on a recommendation of the FMC in filing a civil penalty suit against three shippers, a carrier, and a freight forwarder. The complaint alleges that Union Camp was permitted to enter into consolidation arrangements to obtain preferential volume rates in their shipments.

At the Southern Africa Europe Container Service Ltd. (SAECS) communications centre, based in London, advanced Codex Data communications equipment recently went on-line over a leased high-speed link between London and Cape Town, South Africa.