The Ministry of Transport (MOT) published on its official website the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on International Maritime Transportation (Revised Draft for Comments), soliciting public opinions, and after reading it, we would like to briefly comment on the Revised Draft as follows:

In terms of administrative approval, we are pleased to see that the MOT has significantly relaxed the market access for international maritime operations. This is mainly reflected in Article 7, Article 8, and Article 10 of the Revised Draft, where MOT intends to only require administrative approval for passenger ships and international bulk liquid dangerous goods ships. After the adoption of this Revised Draft, other vessels not mentioned above will be able to operate without obtaining administrative permits. However, those engaged in the international container ship and international general cargo ship operations, as well as international ship agency and ship management businesses, should file with relevant authorities within 15 days from the date of commencement.

Regarding the filing of freight rates (freight and related surcharges), there are regrettable aspects in this Revised Draft. This is mainly reflected in Article 18 and Article 20, where we noted that “the publicized freight rate” and “the negotiated freight rate” both adhere to the principle of filing system. However, MOT explicitly stipulates that when establishing or increasing the related surcharges, international liner operators and non-vessel operating business operators should provide “clear cost items, relevant supporting documents matching the actual expenses, and reasonable magnitude” to the filing authority. We understand that if the required supporting documents are not provided, the filing authority will not accept the filing. This provision turns the filing process into a substantive examination, rendering the filing system virtually meaningless and effectively treating it as an administrative permit. According to Chinese legal provisions, normal administrative permits have a specific review period, while administrative permits conducted under the name of “filing” can be indefinitely extended. Once the Ministry of Transport/Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) refuses to accept the filing of the related surcharges, the matter of adjusting surcharges will become uncertain and subject to indefinite postponement.

Therefore, we would like to suggest either removing the requirement of providing supporting documents when establishing or increasing freight rates in the first paragraph of Article 20, and implementing the filing system properly by transferring the post-examination of rate-related matters to the anti-monopoly department; or clearly converting the filing system into an administrative permit system and specifying the review period.