In the EU, the recent commitment to opening up both the shipping and road haulage industries to cleaner power sources, has been reinforced by one of the world's premier container and general shipping ports with the announcement that the Port of Rotterdam is stepping up its sustainable shipping policy by rewarding the operators of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers with a discount on port charges.

Representatives from the Belarusian and Italian Commission on International Road Transport met in Rome where an agreement was reached to increase bilateral quotas on road haulage in 2013 and 2014. The parties also discussed the subject of intermodal transport and the prospect of increased use of bilateral communication, and increasing the flow of freight between Europe and Asia.

The latest communication from the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG), a body which packs in all the heavy hitters involved in the supply chain, from forwarding agents to airlines, makes very plain the views of the air cargo industry regarding the recently stalled Doha Round of trade negotiations held under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and specifically designed to lower trade barriers and simplify processes, particularly to allow two way market access to developing countries.

The current British politicians representing the transport sector certainly seem to be putting themselves out again this month with ministerial visits to two of the country's major container shipping ports, a leading logistics park and the launch of a new scheme to place ex-forces personnel into work in the freight and logistics sectors.

As talks are announced regarding a potential free-trade agreement between the two continental powers, which could simplify and revolutionize the €450 per annum trans-Atlantic trade there are rumblings in UK freight forwarding circles that another agreement, potentially a precursor to the main agreement and involving the security concerns when shipping goods between the partners, does not appear to hold all that it originally seemed to promise.