The European Shippers' Council has declined to join the reconstituted Global Shippers Forum, (GSF), which announced recently it will become a non-governmental organization so that it could speak for shippers at organizations such as the United Nation's International Maritime Organization.
Nicolette van der Jagt, secretary general of the European Shippers Council, said the decision was not based on any policy disagreement with other shipper groups, but a different view of the GSF.
Robert Ballantyne, president of the Canadian Industrial Transportation Association and chairman of the newly incorporated global body, said, "As far as the rest of us could tell, the European Shippers Council felt the Global Shippers Forum should continue as just an unincorporated 'talk shop' to meet once a year and talk about things, where everybody else felt that if the GSF was really going to be helpful to the shipper community on a global basis then it needed to have a bit more structure and be recognized as an NGO."
