Maritime officials from China, the United States and the European Commission held their first joint meeting on Tuesday in Washington to review the proposed P3 Network, a pooling arrangement among the world's three largest operators of container vessels.

Denmark-based A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, Mediterranean Shipping Co SA of Switzerland and French carrier CMA CGM SA agreed in June to establish the long-term operational alliance on East-West routes to optimize resources and lower the cost of container shipping.

The alliance will operate total capacity of 2.6 million 20-foot equivalent units, initially using 252 large-capacity vessels on 28 loops on three trade lanes: Asia-Europe, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic.