Hauliers want solution or else...

The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU said it expected the pending issues on port tariffs to be resolved "in the next few days".

In the absence of a solution, hauliers could stage a strike and refuse to claim containers from the Freeport again on Monday, GRTU director general Vince Farrugia said yesterday.

Discussions involving the GRTU, which represents cargo hauliers, shipping agents, the port authorities and the government, have been going on in the past few days, particularly over the new tariffs regime.

Hauliers are also objecting to a decision by the Freeport to transfer its cash office from Marsa to Birzebbuga.

As a sign of protest, hauliers parked their trailers in a long line outside the Freeport and refused to claim containers last week. The strike disrupted industry as manufacturers had their raw materials blocked inside the Freeport and exporters were unable to ship consignments.

Mr Farrugia told The Times yesterday the authorities had agreed that the cash office will be transferred to the Customs Building in Valletta to create a kind of one-stop shop for hauliers, adding that this was likely to materialise soon.

But the real issue, that traders were not paying lower charges than they did before the port reform took off, was still unresolved, he said.

The point which hauliers tried to make was that the promised reduction of port fees had not materialised, Mr Farrugia insisted. It was, after all, in the interest of industry that hauliers had protested, which is why the GRTU could not understand why it had come under attack by both industry and importers.

"Those who rushed to attack hauliers and the GRTU saying we were irresponsible, and that we were acting against the interest of industy, are now claiming they are disappointed with the port reform. That's the point which the GRTU has been making throughout: That the reduction in costs which the government promised was a chimera," Mr Farrugia said. Shipping agents, who are still in talks with the port authorities, are billing clients according to the old system even if the Freeport has been applying the new tariffs regime announced by the Malta Maritime Authority.