| TOP |
| 6th Report of Market Access Ombudsman Council (March 16, 2000) |
1. Complainant: Korean Embassy
2. Ministry concerned: Ministry of Finance
3. Complaint:
In the Keihin area, all ports in Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures in the said area are designated together as the open port of Keihin, and paying tonnage duty in any of these ports gives access to the facilities of all ports in the area. On the other hand, where the Hanshin area is concerned, ports in the prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo, even when geographically in close proximity, are designated as separate open ports, and users must pay individual tonnage duty for use of facilities at each port in the area.
For this reason, shipping companies using ports in the Hanshin area, which is a major distribution point, must bear higher expenses compared to shipping companies using ports in the Keihin area, the main distribution point for Kanto, and they suffer a disadvantage (one private sector business estimated the additional costs incurred from using Hanshin area ports at 4.25 million yen per year for a 5,300 TEU ship).
Accordingly, payment of tonnage duty should be combined for ports in the Hanshin area, as is done in the Keihin area, so that port users paying tonnage duty at one Hanshin area port are entitled to use facilities at all ports in this area.
4. Corresponding Policy of the Ministries concerned:
(1) Tonnage duty and special tonnage duty (hereafter referred to as "tonnage duty") are levied when foreign trading vessels enter open ports, with the taxation rate assessed based on net tonnage; open ports are designated taking into consideration cargo imports and exports and foreign trading vessels moving in and out of those ports, and other conditions. Further, since the areas covered by open ports differ from port to port based on law and this is difficult for port users to know this, in terms of the Customs Law, this is determined by the port area set out for ports under the Port Regulation Law, which uniformly specifies port areas throughout Japan. But in special cases, such as when foreign trading vessels are expected to enter port on a regular basis outside of port areas specified by the Port Regulation Law, or when foreign trading vessels are not expected to enter port inside port areas specified by the Port Regulation Law, exceptions are made and open port areas different from those based on the Port Regulation Law are designated.
(2) Regarding combining payment of tonnage duty for Hanshin area ports as one open port, there are no special reasons for designating an open port area different from that based on the Port Regulation Law, and in terms of ensuring fair treatment compared to ports in other areas, it is not possible to combine Hanshin area ports into one open port merely because they are in geographical proximity.
5. Remarks
The complainant accepted this policy.