KARACHI – The International Multimodal Transport Association (IMMTA) is going to hold a conference on “The Impact of the Rotterdam Rules on International Trade of Pakistan” on March 29, 2011.
The new UN Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly be Sea, known as the ‘Rotterdam Rules’ which had been prepared under the auspices of United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), after several years of deliberations, was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2008.
The Convention was released for signature by states at a signing ceremony in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on the 23 September, 2009. As of January 2011, 23 countries have signed the convention but no country has ratified it yet. The Convention requires 20 ratifications to enter into force.
When contacted, Member Board of Governors World Maritime University, Sweden, Captain Anwar Shah said he was saddened by the fact that the Ministry of Law and Justice has neglected the draft bill of adopting New United Nations Convention Rotterdam Rules (carriage of goods by sea Act) since 2005, and seems bent on continued use of the outdated 1925 Act of carriage of goods by sea.
He indicated that he had designed a draft bill replacing the 1925 Act of carriage of goods by sea being still used in the country and the adoption of Rotterdam Rules,’, adding that the ministry had dumped the project into cold storage and no positive outcome had emerged as a result, thus nullifying all the effort put in to revise the bill which was to have addressed the requirements faced in modern day.
Pakistan is placed in a situation in which it still relies on dated regulations. He noted that the rest of the world amended the “Hague Rules” in 1968 on the premise that the “Hague Rules” are in favor of ship owners, limiting their liability to trade, he added. The IMMTA local office is concerned that whilst Pakistan could not amend the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), it raises doubt whether it can accept the onslaught or Rotterdam Rules, Shah reasoned.
He went on to say that the most serious issue is switching the bills of lading of State Bank of Pakistan with transport documents. This entails that prudential regulations have to be amended to allow the negotiable instrument act/law to accommodate new requirements. Captain Shah was among the Pakistanis who participated in IMMTA’s conference held at Marbella, Spain, from 19-23 September, 2010.
According to the IMMTA Country Representative for Pakistan and Honorary Secretary Geneva International Multimodal Transport Association (IMMTA Pakistan) Captain Raffat Zaheer, unlike the existing transport conventions, the Rotterdam Rules has a very wide scope of application and will apply to all contracts for international carriage of goods by sea, as well as multimodal transport including international sea transit.
Realising that Pakistani traders are not quite familiar with the “Rotterdam Rules”, IMMTA Pakistan is organising an event in Karachi on Tuesday 29 March, 2011, in which international experts will brief the participants on whether it would be in the interest of Pakistan to ratify this Convention.
It is necessary to mention that one of the most important issues in international transport of goods is the question of carrier’s liability for cargo loss or damage and currently there are three international regimes in force that may govern liability arising from the carriage of goods by sea, namely, the Hague Rules, the Hague-Visby Rules and the Hamburg Rules.
