Exporters demand laws on shippers' illogical price fixing

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Jasim Uddin Haroon
The country's exporters Saturday urged enactment of adequate laws to prevent cartel-like illogical price fixing by shipping lines, which hurt the local export-oriented industries.
They raised the issue in line with a meeting discussion of the Fifth Asian Shippers Council, currently going on in Colombo. Speakers at the meeting urged enacting new laws or reforming existing laws to prevent anti-competitive practices by shipping liner cartels.
They also said if a cartel system is allowed to continue, the cost of shipping cargo or product will be artificially increased, which will hurt the Asian economies, according to Lanka Business Online (LBO), a web-based business site.
"We want such a law or policy by our government that will prevent cartel-like illogical price fixing by the feeder and mainline operators," BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy said.
He alleged that feeder and mainline operators whimsically increase freight charges on different excuses without informing stakeholders.
He said the government should follow the example set by China and India, as the countries recently brought in competition laws to prevent arbitrariness of shipping lines in fixing freight rates.
Former BGMEA president Anwar Alam Chowdhury Parvez said the government should concentrate on the issue immediately to take the advantage of post-recession era.
Anwar also said if market forces are allowed to act properly, the freight prices would be very low, adding that the local exporters are getting very low prices for their orders.
He alleged that in this very depressed global market scenario the shipping lines should not be given the undue opportunity to artificially push up charges on excuses like fuel price surge or others.