Member container lines of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA) announced a "best practices" checklist for export contracting at its website, www.wtsacarriers.org. With a purpose of assisting shippers prepare to negotiate Pacific bound export cargo contracts with carriers, the checklist was designed as a reference tool to ensure that all potential issues/concerns are negotiated.

WTSA Executive Administrator Brian Conrad said the document captures some of the key issues that have been of recent concern to carriers and shippers in the export trade.

Conrad noted that WTSA “...cannot guarantee that every shipper and every carrier will agree on each and every point contained in the checklist, but we do feel that it provides a useful ‘one stop guide’ to some of the issues that both parties need to talk about in the course of their contracting. As global supply chains become more complex, time-sensitive and price-sensitive, shippers and carriers need contracts that take us beyond simple volume discounts and more fully spell out the obligations of both parties based on real-time sharing of information.”