In a statement, the DTI said this partnership will involve information-sharing of lists of accredited sea freight forwarders and those with pending administrative cases or complaints.
"With the proper information from DTI, the shipping lines may refuse carriage of consolidated balikbayan box shipments if the foreign consolidator is in DTI's Advisory of those companies, and/or the Philippine Agent/Freight Forwarder [has] complaints [against it] at DTI or has no DTI accreditation to engage in freight forwarding business," the Trade department said.
There are currently 633 eligible firms in the list made by DTI's Philippine Shippers' Bureau, which implements an accreditation scheme for freight forwarders as mandated under Executive Order No. 514.
The DTI hopes to pull down the number of complaints-- already at 550 since 2008 -- from missing and undelivered balikbayan boxes by tapping the AISL, which is composed of 41 container shipping lines that carry around 85% of the volume of Philippine export and import goods.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
