Licensing of ship agents, freight forwarders: new law will be issued in consultation with stakeholders

The new legislation for regulating the licensing and registration of ship agents, freight forwarders, and other maritime logistics service providers would be issued in consultation with all stakeholders, it is learnt.
Sources told Business Recorder that the issue of terminal handling charges and regulations for ship agents/freight forwarders was discussed during the last meeting of the National Trade Corridor Task Force Committee on Trade Facilitation, Ports Dwell Time and Ports Charges (NTC-TF) held at the FBR.
They said that finalisation of the regulatory mechanism for freight forwarding business was discussed in the meeting. The representative of National Trade and Transport Facilitation Committee (NTTFC) informed meeting that in a recently convened meeting of the committee on ''Harmonisation of Port Charges'' at Karachi, chaired by Secretary Commerce, it was decided that NTTFC will draft a legislation to regulate the services of freight forwarders and other maritime logistics service providers. Accordingly, a draft has been prepared and circulated for comments of the respective stakeholders.
Sources said that at present the Ministry of Commerce is working on the issue of terminal handling charges and third meeting of scales of charges was chaired by Secretary Commerce wherein it was decided that the State Bank of Pakistan will resolve the issue relating to Bill of Lading and that NTTFC supported by Trade and Transport Facilitation Project-2 (TTFP-2) will draft the legislation for regulating the licensing and registration of ship agents, freight forwarders and other such service providers in six to eight weeks after consulting the legislation of other countries.
Sources said that the Chairman of TIR Commission informed the meeting that there is need to evaluate the best international practices in this sector and to make an effort to introduce/implement the same in Pakistan. It was suggested that for this either Unctad or World Bank transport advisory wing should also be associated with the committee on ''Harmonisation of Port Charges''. A representative of a donor agency observed that ever since the issue emerged on the agenda of the NTC-TF there have been frequent changes of supervising Ministry which is not helping in resolution of the problem. The representative of the donor agency also emphasised the reorganisation of the committee and also stressed the need for comparison of the best international practices with the prevailing local practices to remove existing gaps. The representative of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) informed the meeting that due to the complaints of trade, it is desirable that a high powered committee represented by all stakeholders should be formed to take decision. It was agreed that the committee on the ''Harmonisation of Port Charges'' should be broad based representing all stakeholders.
The meeting decided that since a committee chaired by Secretary Commerce is working on the issue of port charges etc, it is desirable to wait for the outcome of deliberations of that committee. However, the committee will be informed regarding the need to induct representatives of Unctad or donors for references to international best practices.
The meeting was informed that National Trade Corridor Management Unit (NTCMU) with the assistance of a donor agency has identified various areas like capacity building of logistics sector, logistics compliance survey, development of financing models for logistics industry, logistics cost study, and customs performance measurement for conducting technical studies to achieve the objectives of National Trade Corridor Improvement Program (NTCIP). The Project Director of NTCMU informed the meeting that funds are available with NTCMU for undertaking various technical studies in the identified areas and requested members of NTC-TF to identify the area of their choice for conduct of technical study to better achieve the objectives of NTCIP.
On a query of Chairman of TIR Commission regarding the status of the approval of Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA) by the Parliament, the Secretary of NTTFC informed the meeting that the bill in this regard had now been moved, sources added.