‘Known shipper’ concept will help

The fact that clearing and forwarding (c&f) agents could be targeted under SA’s present Counterfeit Goods Act (CGA) is just one of the indications that the international move towards them becoming part of ‘the known shipper’ concept would help innocent parties avoid being held liable for moving such goods on behalf of importer/ exporter clients. It is clear that globally freight forwarders need to be moving in that direction. For example, discussions at the 2007 Fiata (International Association of Freight Forwarders) conference in Dubai made it clear that freight forwarders were increasingly being held accountable for issues that extended beyond the transport chain. In terms of EU legislation, for example, a freight forwarder who knows or has reasonable grounds to know that his commercial activity infringes intellectual property can be held liable for that. And in a situation where a forwarder has no reasonable knowledge, he may be ordered to disclose banking, financial and commercial documents. “In effect this means that if a forwarder gets involved in dealing with counterfeit goods, he could be held liable,” SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) executive officer Chris Richards told FTW at the time.