Moon Seong-hyeok, Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, "Amendment to the Shipping Act Is Not Favoring Shipping Companies"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] On the 5th, Moon Seong-hyeok, Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, emphasized that the core of the amendment to the Shipping Act related to the punishment of shipping companies' freight collusion is "to allow handling according to the Shipping Act if there is any illegal act."

Minister Moon held a luncheon meeting with the press corps at the Government Complex Sejong in the morning and stated, "The amendment is regulated much more strictly than the previous law," adding, "It is not about overlooking even the wrongdoings of shipping companies."

The amendment to the Shipping Act, which mainly stipulates that the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) rather than the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) will be responsible for punishing shipping companies' freight collusion, recently passed the subcommittee on bills of the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee. The FTC opposes the bill, citing reasons such as the MOF not properly supervising collusive acts if the Shipping Act is amended, and retroactively applying exemptions to matters already investigated and concluded by the FTC.

Regarding the FTC's plan to impose fines on 23 shipping companies, Minister Moon pointed out that since it will take time until the amendment is enforced, it is fully possible if the FTC has the will. Earlier, the FTC submitted a review report in May stating the need to impose fines up to 800 billion KRW on 23 domestic and international shipping companies, including HMM, for collusive acts from 2003 to 2018.

Minister Moon explained, "We need to consider the special nature of shipping," and added, "Legal grounds for shipping joint actions have been established since 1978, and they have continuously been excluded from joint action regulations, recognizing the difference from other industries." Regarding concerns about the difficulty of protecting cargo owners, he said, "Recently, due to COVID-19 and related supply shortages, cargo owners are facing difficulties in import and export logistics, but historically, especially in the past 15 years that the FTC has raised issues, (cargo owners) have overwhelmingly held the upper hand," and drew a clear line by saying, "If it were really a problem, there would have been significant protests by now, but rather, that side (cargo owners) issued a statement supporting the Shipping Act."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.