ICC Digital Library Forum

I would appreciate your comments on a case that has cropped up on our side.

Our credit called for an on board Ocean Bill of Lading evidencing shipment from any Taiwanese Port to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The BL presented has the following information: -

Place of Receipt:Blank Port of Loading: Taichung, Taiwan

Port of Discharge: Singapore Place of Delivery: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

We treated it as a discrepancy since the Port of Discharge did not show Kota Kinabalu as stipulated in the credit. Some of our colleagues decided that it does not constitute a discrepancy. Then they decided to advise customers to insert a clause ' Multimodal Transport Document acceptable'.

Would that make the BL presented in the above situation acceptable?

I would have thought if a MTD is presented, both the boxes Place of Receipt & Delivery should indicate the places as stipulated in the credit i.e. in the above scenario

Place of Receipt: Taichung, Taiwan Place of Delivery: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Is our interpretation correct?





[edited 7/25/01 3:30:51 PM]

PORT OF DISCHARGE IN DC MUST BE REFLECTED IN MARINE/OCEAN BL

We assume that the DC calls for any Taiwanese port as the port of loading and Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Sabah State, North Borneo, West Malaysia as the port of discharge.

The BL shows the port of discharge as Singapore. Since there is no surface transport from Singapore to KK, the on carriage must be by another ship under transhipment. Air transport is unlikely in practical sense. However, the enquier has not disclosed whether the name of this second vessel is shown on the BL or not.

In any case, the BL does not comply with sub Article 23 (a) (iii) governing marine/ocean/port-to-port BL required in the DC because the port of discharge should be KK as stipulated in the DC and not Singapore.

MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT ALSO INCLUDES UNIMODAL (ONE MODE) TRANSPORT

If the DC allows multimodal transport documents/BsL, then the same BL would then compy, however named, as its data content shows multimodal transport, where one mode of transport (unimodal transport) may also be deemed as multimodal transport according to sub Article 1.1 of the UNCTAD/ICC Rules for Multimodal Transport Documents (RMTD), ICC Publication No. 481.

However, according to sub Article 26 (a) of the UCP 500, multimodal transport means at least two different modes of transport, which is not consistent with the RMTD stated above.
To have further understanding, the enquirer may refer to the article "Inconsistencies Amongst Terms Used in ICC Rules" in our website.

BL FOR PORT-TO-PORT SHIPMENT OR MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT SHIPMENT

In a BL for p-t-p shipment or MT shipment, the four boxes or any one particular box should be filled up to reflect the actual carriage mode(s).
For the carriage from a Taiwanese port to KK, depending on the actual carriage mode(s), there may be other alternatives in filling up these four boxes besides the one example given by the enquirer.

Carriage may be by (a) MT through out, (b) MT only at the place of receipt but not after discharge (c) carrier not liable until goods being loaded on board but MT after discharge or (d) p-t-p shipment only. Each of these four transport modes may need a different way in filling up the boxes.

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[edited 8/29/02 9:54:18 PM]