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and they must be either approved or rejected in their entirety. To be
effective, rejection must be by means of a formal expression of dissatisfaction
to the other government concerned and most ASAs provide for a filing to take
automatic effect if such dissatisfaction has not been expressed within a
certain period of the filing that period will vary from 15 days to an
indefinite date, depending on the ASA concerned). On receipt of an expression
of dissatisfaction, the recipient government can either accept the rejection
of the tariff in question or call for consultations with the complaining
government. In either event, the previous tariff will normally continue
in force, usually for a period of 12 months beyond the date on which it would
otherwise have expired. This gives an opportunity for airlines or governments
to re-negotiate a new tariff. There is provision for arbitration in most ASA's
if the two governments find themselves unable to agree, but the arbitration machinery
is inappropriate for tariff disputes (because the procedures are time consuming,
open to delaying tactics, and the eventual arbitration award would probably be
irrelevant since it would be concerned with an out of date tariff level). It
should also be noted that governments sometimes take the initiative in establishing
or modifying tariffs by issuing directives (or orders) to carriers. Most ASAS
make no provision for such government initiatives but there is provision in IATA
Resolutions for such action and the purpose is to enable a carrier to do something
(or not to do something) which would otherwise put it in breach of IATA agreements
and open to enforcement action by IATA. Unilateral action by means of a government
directive does not override the provisions of ASAs and a directive must be.
approved by the other government(s) concerned before it can be implemented.
The usual procedure for an airline receiving a government directive is to file
it with the other government(s) concerned for approval, and it is then processsed
as a bilateral filing on the lines previously explained.
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