House Passes U.S. Ocean Shipping Reform Act
The U.S. House passed legislation Wednesday providing for the first major update of U.S. International ocean-shipping laws in more than two decades. That comes as the nation continues to grapple with bottlenecks at its ports that are crippling supply chains.
News of the legislation moving on to the Senate was applauded by the North American Meat Institute, which said in a statement the bill would “prohibit ocean carriers from unreasonably declining export cargo bookings, a practice that has disadvantaged American exporters including the meat and poultry industry.”
Proponents of the bipartisan legislation gives the Federal Maritime Commission an updated toolbox to protect exporters, importers and consumers from unfair practices, updating the watchdog’s authority to regulate the industry for the first time since 1998.
The legislation “provides much-needed updates and reform to an archaic system that retailers and thousands of other businesses depend on each day to transport goods,” the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail-trade association, said in a statement. “These improvements could not come at a more critical time, as the amplification from the pandemic has been severe.”
“The problems at our ports have been exacerbated by the unreasonable practices of foreign-owned ocean carriers, including delays of shipments of American made goods to overseas trading partners,” said Julie Anna Potts, President and CEO of the North American Meat Institute. “These delays result in major costs to meat and poultry companies as their perishable products await transport.”
Carriers are unreasonably declining or cancelling export cargo bookings, providing little or no notice to exporters, which is delaying shipments by weeks or even months. The resulting inability of shippers to deliver their products to their foreign customers on schedule negatively impacts the reliability of American exports, jeopardizing export values and market share.
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021 was introduced by U.S. Congressmen John Garamendi (D-CA) and Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and was approved by the House with a vote of 364 to 60. The bill now goes before the Senate for further consideration.
The Act would further help agricultural exporters by improving the Federal Maritime Commission’s ability to enforce its interpretive rule on predatory detention and demurrage fees as well as prohibiting ocean carriers from continuing to unreasonably decline export bookings. The bill would help place guardrails on the ocean carriers’ actions.
