On Monday, leaders of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation called on the Federal Maritime Commission to ensure ocean carriers are following U.S. law and not engaging in unjust practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Sam Graves (R-MO), ranking member of that committee, Salud Carbajal (D-CA), chair of the Maritime Transportation subcommittee, and Bob Gibbs (R-OH), subcommittee ranking member, voiced their concerns in a letter to Michael Khori, chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. At issue was their questions about disruptions to the maritime supply chain because of the pandemic and how ocean carriers have prioritized higher value foreign goods over U.S. agricultural products.
“These carriers have elected to ship empty containers back to foreign ports while increasing charges on agricultural exports up to $500 per container to China and other Asian countries, resulting in limited shipping capacity for U.S. farm exporters,” the Congressmen wrote. “This has led to widespread spoilage of produce and threatens not only the financial wellbeing of our farmers, but also the reliability of our domestic agriculture industry as an international trade partner, the delivery schedules for other intermodal components of the supply chain, the lifeblood of our rural communities, and the broader U.S. economy.”
The Congressmen asked Khori to determine whether or not ocean carriers were in compliance with the Interpretive Rule on Detention and Demurrage and if there had been any violations of U.S. shipping codes that prohibit unjust and unreasonable ocean shipping practices.