TACA CONFERENCE TO CLOSE U.S. SECRETARIAT

   Shipping lines of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement have decided to close down the New York-based secretariat office of the agreement next June.
   Conference functions will then be centralized at the European secretariat of the conference, based in Crawley, England.
   The change is the second step of a major reduction in staff levels and activities performed by the conference, following the enactment of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act.
   The U.S. shipping reform is seen as having weakened conferences in U.S. trades and virtually eliminated the role of conferences in managing service contracts between conference carriers and shippers.
   From a combined staff of 30 a year ago, the U.S. and European secretariats of the TACA conference have reduced their staff to six. Next June, only four European-based staffers will remain.
   David Jeffries, general manager of TACA, said that the conference secretariat will continue to handle conference-wide agreement service contracts and maintain the conference tariff.
   The members of the TACA conference are Atlantic Container Line, Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shiping Co., Maersk Sealand, NYK, Orient Overseas Container Line and P&O Nedlloyd.