With respect to the trucking industry, I don't think there's anything. There is enough competition in the trucking industry these days. Our mills are able to work with their trucking company providers to get the product from the mill to the market in a timely fashion.
In the marine sector, there may be a couple of issues you may want to look at. One was referred to as the marine pilotage issue. One of the things FPAC has been an advocate of for a number of years now is commercialization of the marine pilotage system. Right now in many regions of the country there is one marine pilotage authority that provides the service at the ports. We think that, like any other sector, it should be subject to commercialization and competition.
In addition to that, there's also the Shipping Conferences Exemption Act, which basically now provides for ocean carriers or ocean conferences the ability to get together and set rates. There is legislation--there is now a movement in the European community--to eliminate the antitrust immunity that conferences currently enjoy. We as FPAC and a number of other shipper associations have been strong advocates for the elimination of that antitrust immunity to force the ocean carriers that ship by container or carry containers to compete in the marketplace the same way we have to, without being able to get together and set rates and so on.
Those are two issues that come to mind right now.
The third one that you may also want to consider is the marine services fees that are presently imposed by the federal government on services provided by marine carriers. Those services include icebreaking and other marine services, like the placement of buoys in ports and so on. Those costs get passed on to our members, our shippers, and particularly those mills that are located on the east coast, where icebreaking is required, in Newfoundland and in the St. Lawrence River. There is an additional cost burden to those mills, in some cases up to 50ยข a tonne. That's a cost that we have to incur and cannot pass on to the marketplace.
In the marine sector, those are issues you may want to consider looking at down the road.
Thank you.