United States Anti-trust Laws (Hansard, 6 February 1963)

§ Mr. Marples

Yes. I assume the hon. Member refers to the United States66W Shipping Act. The following is a statement: Her Majesty's Government have been concerned about the way in which the United States Shipping Act, 1916 has been applied to international commerce for some time, particularly since the Act was amended in 1961. The Act is part of the body of American anti-trust legislation designed to investigate, to control and to modify business combinations and contracts. The Act seeks to cover arrangements made in any part of the world and by nationals of other countries, if such arrangements appear, in the United States' view, to affect even remotely the interests of their commerce. The Shipping Act confers powers of regulation upon the Federal Maritime Commission which penetrate into the minutiae of commercial shipping management it covers among other things freight rates, contracts between shipowners and merchants, and between shipowners and the providers of ancillary services. In order to see that the Act is observed, the United States authorities have frequently required foreign shipping companies to file with them commercial information located outside the United States and referring to matters outside their substantive jurisdiction. When this has happened, Her Majesty's Government have required British companies not to produce the documents requested, because among other things demands of this kind lead to conflicts of jurisdiction, they inhibit the efficient operation of commercial shipping and they put the shipowners to unproductive expense through paper work and the costs of legal representation in the United States. This is by no means a negligible item. There is one particular respect in which it now looks as if an improvement may take place in this matter of production of documents. Her Majesty's Government together with nine other European Governments made representations to the United States in May 1962 about a particular regulation proposed by the United States Federal Maritime Commission because, among other things, it would have required shipping conferences to give the Commission access to documents and information obtained by neutral bodies appointed within conferences to investigate complaints of malpractice, irrespective of the location and subject matter of the documents. Her Majesty's Government therefore welcomes reports of a recent decision by the Commission to withdraw this regulation.