Customs brokers in Manila are organizing a motorcade on August 18 in protest of supposedly high surcharges levied by international shipping lines.
On its Facebook account, the Chamber of Customs Brokers, Inc (CCBI) said brokers and their clients “have long suffered from the arbitrary charges and inefficiency of shipping lines. It is about time that our voice must be heard.”
CCBI executive vice president Samson Gabisan told PortCalls shipping lines are the “biggest barriers to trade facilitation”, describing them as “inefficient”.
Gabisan said CCBI is asking shipping lines to levy “reasonable charges”, claiming that additional fees such as emergency surcharge and cost recovery surcharge levied by carriers now cost more than the regular freight rate itself.
He also called for more IT-based document processing that would do away with human intervention and deter corruption.
He claimed processing of documents by shipping lines now takes one to two days unlike only hours previously.
Aside from customs brokers, truckers and other stakeholders will join the motorcade, according to Gabisan.
The motorcade will start at 8am at the Quirino Grandstand and end up at the Association of International Shipping Lines (AISL) office in Malate.
AISL had no comment on the planned motorcade. – Roumina Pablo
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
