The Status Of The Freight Forwarder In China

With the development of international trade and shipping markets, the business scope of freight forwarders extend continuously and they play a more important role and also act as different roles in the shipping markets. Freight forwarding, in today's Shipping markets, has been developed from the traditional roles acting as a pure agent or intermediary to today's NVOCC and international multimode transportation operator. They will come forth in four kinds of different roles in different situations, respectively as agent, intermediary, NVOCC and international multimode transportation operator. According to relative laws and regulations in china, and in the light of the practice of freight forwarding, this article probes into the legal status and rights and obligations for the freight forwarder. I hope this article will be conductive to the development of business of freight forwarding and the perfection of relevant legal system of freight forwarders.We have not got a uniform definition for the freight forwarder up to now. The author considers that Article two of the Enforcement Regulations of Administrative Law for Freight Forwarding Industry of the People's Republic of China gives a more accurate explanation. The independent operator referred to in the enforcement regulations is NVOCC and international multimode transportation operator. The concept of the carrier in Maritime Code of the People's Republic of China (CMC) includes the NVOCC.The freight forwarder can not become a broker in the existing law system. We can clarify whether the freight forwarder is an agent per procurement or an independent operator from three aspects, which are contract terms, freight forwarder performance and the way of payment for freight. The rights and obligations of a NVOCC is the same as the carrier's in CMC, thus it can accelerate and normalize the development of the freight forwarder. As a matter of fact, there are some differences between the NVOCC and the carrier who own or operate the vessel. For example, only the ship owner is entitled to take the rights of limitation of liability for maritime claims. Some rights such as maritime lien, in author opinion, can be exercised at the situation when the cargo is still under the custoday of the freight forwarder. The dissertation discusses the legal character of the freight forwarder's bill of lading and freight forwarder 's legal status when he issues the bill of lading, dwell upon the rights and obligations that the freight forwarder should be taken when he plays the different roles as agent per procurement, NVOCC, international multimode transportation operator and intermediary.In the end, the author thinks that it is essential to establish the law governing the freight forwarder in China and also put forward some proposals to perfect our own legal system.