We Will Engage Multinationals to Negotiate Shipping Costs- UASC
Oru Leonard
The Director, Consumer Affairs, National Sippers Council, Mr Cajetan Agu has said that the Union of African Shippers’ Council (UASC), will engage the multinationals to negotiate shipping cost.
Speaking to correspondent after a technical session of UASC/ FAL meeting, he noted that the need to obtain reliable data to give the power to engage the multinational shipping companies were deliberated on and UASC was given the mandate to collect and collate data relating to freight charges in the west and central African countries.
Cajetan, stated that the Committee members agreed on the need to engage the multinational shipping lines on the imposition of arbitrary charges, so as to know the component of freight rate they are paying.
“The multinational shipping companies should give a breakdown of their charges, we need to know what we are taking.
“We have also contacted a group of experts and we agreed unanimously that we would do that. We also discussed the need to deploy technology on the issue of transit rate and transportation,” he said.
This corroborates the earlier statements of the Executive Secretary, The Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Barrister Hassan Bello that “Shippers’ Councils must take part in cost negotiations to curtail surcharges.”
Bello had also noted that the cost of transportation which he put at 40% was more in Africa than in any other region and suggested that it was important to look at the costs in a very scientific manner and negotiate them appropriately.
“We are not price fixing organisations but we should also have moderation on the cost, the lower the cost of transportation, the more the economy grows. We have the cost of production, transport being substantial in the cost of production.
“What we are saying is, these surcharges, are they really justified, are they really tied to services that are rendered? The shippers have the right to ask what the components are, what premium are we paying, we want to know the component of these, we are a partner in the trade and that should be very important.
“We want to be part of decision-making as preferred by Niger republic. Decision making, we are out of it and we have to be part of it,” he concluded.
The UASC Sub-Regional Summit on Unfair Shipping Surcharges and High Local Shipping Charges at the Ports of West and Central African Region was held in Abuja from August 26-28, 2019.
