July 20, Sweden has signed the ‘Rotterdam Rules’ as 24th country. Spain has ratified as well. The UN convention will take effect one year after 20 countries have ratified.
So far did sign: Armenia, Cameroon, Congo, Denmark, France, Gabon, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Senegal, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Togo and United States of America. Together they represent over 25% of world trade volume.
This new Convention extends and modernizes the existing international rules relating to the contract of maritime carriage of goods. The aim is that the Convention will replace the Hague Rules, the Hague-Visby Rules and the Hamburg Rules and that it will achieve uniformity of law in the field of maritime carriage, as well as provide for modern industry needs in terms of door-to-door carriage.
[mappress] Source: portofrotterdam, July 25, 2011