Section 16 of the Shipping Act of
1984, 46 U.S.C. 40103, authorizes the Federal Maritime Commission
to exempt by rule “any class of agreements between persons subject
to this Act or any specified activity of those persons from any
requirement of this Act if it finds that the exemption will not
result in substantial reduction in competition or be detrimental to
commerce. The Commission may attach conditions to any exemption and
may, by order, revoke any exemption.” The Commission added 46 CFR
531 to exempt non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs) from
the more stringent tariff rate publication requirements of the
Shipping Act of 1984 and related provisions of the Commission’s
regulations to permit them to enter into contracts with shippers
similar to ocean common carrier service contracts. 69 FR 75850
(Dec. 20, 2004). The exemption was conditioned upon the filing of
NVOCC service arrangements (NSAs) by the NVOCC offering the
service; publication of the essential terms of NSAs; and
confidential treatment of such NSAs. In addition, NVOCCs must
maintain NSAs and associated records for 5 years in a format easily
produced to the Commission and produce those records promptly upon
request from the Commission.
Given that the Final Rule in
Docket No. 17-10 eliminates the NSA filing requirement in the
Commission’s SERVCON system (and related Form FMC-78) as well as
the Essential Terms publication requirement, the burden estimate to
respondents for this information collection has been significantly
reduced from 831 hours (2016 estimate) to 127 hours, a difference
of 704 hours. More specifically, the following information
collection requirements have been eliminated: NSAs/Format
Requirements, Essential Terms Publication, Notification/Filing
Requirements and Form FMC-78.
$11,122
No
No
No
No
No
No
Uncollected
Gary Kardian 202
523-5856
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.