Will the Rotterdam Rules Be Accepted? A Liner Cargo Interest Perspective

The paper begins with some background on modern liner shipping and cargo interest perspectives before considering the Rotterdam Rules 2008 (The Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea), which could ultimately replace Canada's existing carriage of goods legislation. The authors explore the key issues arising from the implementation of the Rules, and discuss why, from a manufactured goods perspective, there will likely be limited acceptance by cargo owners. They conclude that the gains made in the areas of electronic documentation and greater clarity on delay, as well as altered limits of liability, do not offset the fact that most manufactured goods now move under confidential service contracts that may or may not choose to incorporate the Rotterdam Rules. On balance, it is unlikely that there will be widespread acceptance of the rules by those purchasing liner shipping services.L'article explique d'abord brievement les interets et les perspectives du transport des marchandises par navire avant d'examiner la Convention des Nations Unies sur le contrat de transport international de marchandises effectue entierement ou partiellement par mer (les Regles de Rotterdam 2008), qui pourrait eventuellement remplacer les lois du Canada sur le transport de marchandises. Les auteurs se penchent sur les principaux enjeux de la mise en oeuvre des Regles et expliquent pourquoi, en ce qui a trait aux biens fabriques, il est probable qu'elles ne beneficient que d'une acceptation limitee par les proprietaires des cargaisons. Ils concluent que les gains realises aux chapitres de la documentation electronique et de la plus grande clarte quant aux retards, tout comme les limites de responsabilite modifiees, ne compenseront pas le fait que la plupart des biens fabriques sont aujourd'hui transportes en vertu de contrats de services confidentiels qui pourront incorporer ou non les Regles de Rotterdam. Tout compte fait, l'acceptation generalisee des Regles sera peu probable pour les acheteurs de services de transport par navire.IntroductionI. Current thinking of governments on the Rotterdam RulesII. A comparison of the rules: Rotterdam Rules versus multimodal rulesIII. A case of damage as illustrationIV. Other issues for users of liner shipping: volume contracts and e-documentationConclusionsIntroductionMattel's 'all-American' Barbie, to use one of Levinson's insightful illustrations, was anything but all-American; her plastic body, clothes and hair all came from various factories in Japan, Taiwan and China.' Barbie was conceived in 1959 and this inexpensive item, relatively speaking, could withstand the cost of transport, be made half-way around the globe and still be affordable for a generation of female baby boomers.2It is now more than 50 years since Barbie (and her creator Mattel) demonstrated the power of global supply chains to transform international trade. Mattel took a value chain approach, later popularized by Michael Porter,3 and realized the wealth creation possible from outsourcing production, although not design or marketing, that eventually was the beginning of a wave of globalization and a symbol of commerce in the latter part of the 20th century. Until ten years ago, the inter-organizational cooperation underpinning such a value chain approach was founded on the concept of maintaining domestic design, marketing and financing of trading activities while outsourcing production, assembly and distribution to lower cost countries, so that the wealthy might become wealthier in a global world. Even that world has changed. As Thomas Friedman noted recently, every product and many services now are imagined, designed, marketed and built through global supply chains that seek to access the best quality talent at the lowest cost, wherever it exists.4 Today, even design and financing may be crowd-sourced5 on the Internet.The legal regimes governing liabilities in international trade and transport have not kept pace with the changing reality of global commerce, although they have seen many variations since the 1924 Hague Rules6 governing bills of lading in the carriage of goods by sea were developed (see below). …

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