TSA has filed an amendment with the Federal Maritime Commission to cover the entire transpacific round trip. TSA executive administrator Brian Conrad said the change is intended to streamline the agreements and cut administrative costs. "Maintaining separate carrier agreements, each with its own meetings, dedicated carrier staff support, compliance requirements and administrative overhead is less justifiable in the past, especially given the sustained low-revenue environment seen in recent years," the group said in a statement. Once the new agreement becomes effective, the lines plan to suspend activities of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA). TSA has designed a 24-month trial period for the amendment, which will be subject to review at the end of that time. In a related development, TSA lines said they will delay by two weeks the implementation of a general rate increase for dry cargo. The postponement, from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15, reconciles the effective dates of GRIs by individual carriers and is meant more closely to align the scheduled increase with year-end cargo trends, TSA said.

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