Accra (GAR), – Mr. Magnus T. Addico, Chief Executive of the Ghana Shippers’ Council (GSC), has urged African Shippers’ Councils to ensure that shippers are not exploited. They can do this by instituting a system of checking freight quotations and the types of vessels nominated by trading partners. He stressed the need for a professionally-operated shippers organizations to receive, study and resolve the multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted problems that African shippers face. Mr. Addico gave this advice in a paper he presented at the just-ended roundtable conference on shipping services in West and Central Africa in Cotonou, Benin. Mr. Addico cautioned African Shipping Councils not to leave shipping arrangements to trading partners because they will have far- reaching consequences. Such consequences include lack of control over freight payments resulting in payment of high freight rates, nomination of sub-standard vessels which pollute the marine environment and non-development of the local freight market. The conference was attended by ship operators from 25 African countries, participants from the World Bank, European Union and Economic Commission for Africa. Others came from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The meeting agreed on the need for broad policy changes that will encourage cost-effective shipping services in the sub-region. It said the reforms should be based on a policy of progressive liberalization over a period of five years. Administrative and regulatory barriers should be removed while legal and institutional co-operation should be facilitated through increased ties to the international trade and transport community.
