US Senate proposal to increase ocean carrier regulation draws criticism from WSC

Futher, carriers will be obliged to provide the FMC with quarterly reports on total import and export tonnage and 20-ft equivalent units (TEU) per vessel that make it to a US port. 

Commenting on the legislation, WSC president and chief executive John Butler disapproved, stating, “The deeply flawed bill passed by the House at the end of last year would place government officials in the role of second-guessing commercially negotiated service contracts and dictating how carriers operate ship networks – an approach that would make the existing congestion worse and stifle innovation.”

“We look forward to the opportunity to work with the Senate to craft a final bill that – in contrast to the House bill – takes a comprehensive, forward-looking view of the real root causes of supply chain congestion – and that does not make that congestion worse.”

Mr Butler added, “Ocean carriers have deployed every available ship and container to move the continuing record levels of cargo resulting from pandemic-driven US demand for imports – but when ships cannot get into port to discharge and load cargo because of landside logistics breakdowns, it is clear that further regulating ocean carriers will not solve the deeper challenges in US supply chains.”

Late last year, the Biden administration admitted that years of underfunding in port infrastructure had contributed to supply chain woes and announced an allocation of US$17Bn to improve port infrastructure in the United States as part of the overall Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 2021.

The newly proposed bill can be accessed here.

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