if your tittle is "shipping clerk", i'm sure they cannot give you more then 12k...
if your english is good enough, and have experience in supervising juniors, try apply shipping supervisor.. they might offer 16K+- as starting salary..
I am in shipping(toys and sundries) for 3-4 years la starting already reach 11k.. but also really depends what industry for shipping if in garment can go up to 20k wor
what kind of industry you're in? Garment or hard goods? If garment, you can try to apply supervisor for 18K, becoz you have 16 years experience but not enough qualification. If in hard goods, it will be quite difficult to get over 16K. Anyways, send your cv to a lot of agents and they will match for you, you just need to pick the ideal one to go for an interview, the agents will work for you as they would like to get the commission as much as you want to find another job!