PART 1 | Short title and commencement |
| 1. This Act is the Multimodal Transport Act 2021 and comes into operation on a date that the Minister appoints by notification in the Gazette. |
2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —| “ASEAN Framework Agreement on Multimodal Transport” means the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Multimodal Transport, signed at Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, on 17 November 2005; |
| “ASEAN member country” means a country declared by the Minister, by notification in the Gazette, as having ratified or acceded to the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Multimodal Transport; |
| “carrier”, in relation to any goods that are the subject of a multimodal transport contract, means a person who performs or undertakes to perform the carriage, or part of the carriage, of the goods by any mode of transport, whether or not the person is the multimodal transport operator of the contract; |
| “consignee”, in relation to any goods that are the subject of a multimodal transport contract, means the person entitled under the multimodal transport contract to receive the goods from the multimodal transport operator of the contract; |
| “consignor”, in relation to any goods that are the subject of a multimodal transport contract, means the person who concluded the contract with another person under which the other person is to be the multimodal transport operator; |
“deliver”, in relation to any goods that are the subject of a multimodal transport contract, means —| (a) | the handing over of the goods to the consignee of the goods; | | (b) | the placing of the goods at the disposal of the consignee of the goods in accordance with the multimodal transport contract or with the law or usage of the particular trade applicable at the place specified in the multimodal transport contract for the delivery of the goods; or | | (c) | the handing over of the goods to an authority or any other party to whom, in accordance with the laws applicable at the place specified in the multimodal transport contract for the delivery of the goods, the goods must be handed over; |
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| “goods” means any property (including any container, pallet or similar article of transport or packaging not supplied by a multimodal transport operator), whether such property is or is to be carried on or under the deck of a conveyance; |
“international multimodal transport” means the carriage of goods on the basis of a multimodal transport contract by at least 2 different modes of transport —| (a) | from a place in a country at which the goods are taken in charge by the multimodal transport operator of the contract; | | (b) | to a place designated for the delivery of the goods situated in a different country; |
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| “mandatory law” means any law of Singapore, or any international convention forming part of the law of Singapore, relating to the carriage of goods, the provisions of which cannot be departed from by contractual stipulations detrimental to the consignor or consignee; |
| “mode of transport” means transport by road, rail, inland waterways, sea or air; |
| “multimodal transport contract” means a contract whereby a multimodal transport operator undertakes, against payment of freight, to perform or to procure the performance of international multimodal transport of goods; |
“multimodal transport document” means a document which evidences —| (a) | a multimodal transport contract for the international multimodal transport of any goods; | | (b) | the taking in charge of the goods by the multimodal transport operator of the contract; and | | (c) | an undertaking by the multimodal transport operator to deliver the goods in accordance with the terms of the contract; |
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“multimodal transport operator” means any person who —| (a) | on the person’s own behalf or through another person acting on the person’s behalf, concludes a multimodal transport contract for the international multimodal transport of any goods; | | (b) | acts as a principal (and not as an agent of or on behalf of the consignor or of any carrier participating in the international multimodal transport of the goods); | | (c) | assumes responsibility for the performance of the multimodal transport contract; and | | (d) | is under the register of the Singapore competent national body or the competent national body of an ASEAN member country; |
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| “registration certificate” means a document issued by the Singapore competent national body certifying that a multimodal transport operator is included in the register of the Singapore competent national body; |
| “Singapore competent national body” means the person or authority authorised by the Minister, by notification in the Gazette, as the competent national body of Singapore, for the purposes of the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Multimodal Transport; |
| “special drawing right” or “SDR” means the unit of account by that name as defined by the International Monetary Fund on its official website at https://www.imf.org/; |
| “taking in charge”, in relation to any goods that are the subject of a multimodal transport contract, means the goods have been handed over and accepted for carriage by the multimodal transport operator of the contract; |
“writing” —| (a) | means a mode of representing or reproducing words, figures or symbols in a visible form; and | | (b) | includes telegram, telex, fax or any other means which prints, records, repeats or transmits messages by mechanical or electronic means, or by any other kind of instrument or apparatus intended for such purposes. |
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| (2) To avoid doubt, the carriage of goods (or any pick‑up, delivery or other operations) by only one mode of transport under a contract is not to be taken as an international multimodal transport of those goods. |
| (3) In this Act, where a container, pallet or similar article of transport is loaded with more than one package or shipping unit, each of the packages or shipping units enumerated in a multimodal transport document as packed in such article of transport is considered a separate package or shipping unit; otherwise such article of transport is considered the package or shipping unit. |
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| Application of Parts 3 to 6 |
3.—(1) Parts 3 to 6 apply in relation to any civil claim relating to the carriage of goods that are the subject of a multimodal transport contract but only if either or both of the following are satisfied:| (a) | the place for the taking in charge of the goods by the multimodal transport operator of the contract as specified in the contract is located in Singapore or an ASEAN member country; | | (b) | the place for delivery of the goods by the multimodal transport operator of the contract as specified in the contract is located in Singapore or an ASEAN member country. |
| (2) Subsection (1) applies to any civil claim whether founded in contract or tort, and whether made against the multimodal transport operator, any servant or agent of the multimodal transport operator, or other person whose services the multimodal transport operator has used to perform the contract. |
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