Importers, exporters, others instructed to ‘disregard and not pay’ charges increment by shipping lines

A coalition known as the Concerned Freight Forwarders and Traders of Ghana, has instructed Ghanaian importers, exporters, freight forwarders and members of the trading community involved in the logistics supply chain in the shipping sub sector to “disregard and not pay” the advertised charges increments by shipping lines.

According to the Coalition, the increment in charges has no legal backing and authorisation, and is also contrary to the regulations of the Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA).

The Coalition posits that, shipping lines in the introduction of the new charges termed Port Additional Surcharge (PAS), did not negotiate the increments in charges with the GSA as mandated under Regulations 5 of the Ghana Shippers Authority Regulations, 2012 (LI 2190).

“By this release, we are entreating all exporters, importers, freight forwarders and all our partners within the logistics supply chain to disregard the notices of any increase in port additional charges from the shipping lines effective March 1,” read part of the statement issued by the Coalition.

Presently, there is an ongoing standoff between freight forwarders and shipping lines following increments in charges by the latter.

President of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), Eddy Akrong, in a letter addressed to the Minister-designate for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, appealed to the Minister to quickly intervene in the matter which if left alone for a little while longer, will be a sure recipe for chaos in the sub-sector.

According to him, several attempts by GIFF to resolve the issues with the shipping lines have all failed with the woes of traders and port users compounding and getting worse by the day.