On The Anti-trust Exemption System In The International Shipping Industry And Its Reform

The anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry is such a system that endows some restricting-competition agreements or conducts of international agreement organizations with anti-trust exemption benefit by shipping legislation. The system is still a kind of international legislation conventions until now. It is the core of shipping legislation of the shipping developed countries. First, Because shipping industry plays an important role in national economy of a country. It is an important carrier of international trade and a reserve force of national defense. Second, it's mainly because of the inherent economic characteristics of shipping industry, such as obvious scale economy, tiny marginal costs, small demand flexibility, rigid capacity supply,etc. These characteristics make the shipping market competition fierce and destructive. Therefore, as a system design balancing and coordinating the relationship between developing scale economy of shipping industry and anti-trust, the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry comes into being. It is a practical choice after balancing interests. It's able to alleviate the excessive competition of shipping market effectively and promote the overall development of shipping industry.In the wake of deregulation reform aiming at drawing into market competition system, deregulation reform involves shipping industry inevitably. The focus on the deregulation reform of international shipping industry is whether retaining or canceling the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry. Under such background, the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry is changing constantly.There mainly exists three types of international agreement organizations in the current international shipping market, namely, liner conferences, discussion agreements, Consortia and Strategic alliances. Generally speaking, liner conferences and discussion agreements have the purpose of restricting or excluding the shipping market competition, while Consortia and Strategic alliances aim at operating cooperatively and increasing efficiency. For this reason, the restricting effect on the shipping market competition of liner conferences and discussion agreements is bigger than that of Consortia and Strategic alliances. Although different shipping developed countries take different attitudes on whether endowing or to what extent endowing some international agreement organizations with anti-trust exemption benefit, we can still come to a conclusion as a whole: the anti-trust exemption of liner conferences and discussion agreements suffers more and more restrictions or is faced with the circumstances of canceling, while the anti-trust exemption of Consortia and Strategic alliances gets more protection and is bound to occupy an important position in the future development of the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry.In future, the overall developing tendency of the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry is that the all-around anti-trust exemption system will be replaced by the selective anti-trust exemption system gradually. At the present time, European Union has formally set up the selective anti-trust exemption system by legislation. In European Union, Consortia and Strategic alliances enjoy the anti-trust exemption, while liner conferences and discussion agreements shall be regulated by the anti-trust law. For America, Australia and Japan, although they still retain the all-around anti-trust exemption system in their present shipping legislation, they have made comprehensive evaluations of their anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry one after another . From these evaluation reports, we can find that their intent to cancel the anti-trust exemption of liner conferences and discussion agreements is obvious, and they will join the procession of European Union sooner or later.China is at the stage of striving to develop into shipping powerful nation and needs to set up its anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry urgently. First, it's based on the practical situation of Chinese international liner shipping market and import & export trade. China is a big country both in the shipping industry and in the international trade. Because of the insufficient capacity supply and the limited international competitiveness of Chinese liner companies, Chinese international liner shipping market has been monopolized by foreign liner companies. This puts Chinese carriers at a disadvantage. Second, there exists a good many deficiency of Chinese law in force regulating the international liner shipping market disputes. For the lack of the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry, Chinese vast carriers can't seek rapid and effective protection of law. Third, the legislation experiences of the shipping developed countries tell us that the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry is of great importance in developing a country's international shipping industry. Even in the era of the deregulation reform of international shipping industry, all the shipping developed countries still retain the anti-trust exemption system all-roundly or selectively. Fourth, setting up the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry has more advantages and less disadvantages to China. It is not only favorable to the development of Chinese shipping industry and import & export trade, but also to Chinese energy security, national defense, even the overall national economy development. Although until now on the anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry China has no pertinent legislation, in other words, China has only some vague and unpractical provisions, we could still find legal basis from Chinese laws and regulations in force in order to setting up the Chinese anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry. According to the general provisions on monopoly agreements of the Anti-trust Law of PRC and the filing system of the Regulations on International Maritime Transportation of PRC, we can set up the Chinese anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry by amending the Regulations on International Maritime Transportation of PRC or enacting the Shipping Law of PRC. As a big country both in the shipping industry and in the international trade, China should set up its anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry based on its characteristics and balancing the interests between shippers and carriers. In my opinion, setting up the selective anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry is the optimal legislation alternatives for China. The last part of the thesis depicts the concrete system design of Chinese anti-trust exemption system in the international shipping industry from three aspects, such as the object of exemption, the scope of exemption and the conditions of exemption.