The World Shipping Council implicitly accuses the US government administration of schizophrenic behavior

The new rule - said the president with satisfaction American on the occasion of the signing of the measure - authorizes appropriations for the FMC for the fiscal years 2022 to 2025, fixed additional requirements for ocean carriers and prohibits them from some practices; requires the FMC to issue rules relating to the assessment of maritime tariffs, the prohibition of practices and the establishment of a maritime register and, in certain cases circumstances, authorizes the FMC to issue an emergency decree that requires shipping carriers to share information directly with the shippers and with the railway and road haulage.

The World Shipping Council, the association representing the main shipping companies operating in the field of containerized maritime transport, perceived the measures taken by the government in Washington as a further direct attack on the category represented by the WSC. Following the signature affixed by Joe Biden to the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, the association has issued a note in which he denounced that "in recent weeks I have several attempts to demonize ocean carriers have been recorded unfolding the rhetoric of "either us or them". This - complained the WSC - not only is it inaccurate, but dangerous given which puts at risk the ability to understand and work for solving the root causes of supply chain problems American. Maritime carriers - highlighted the association - are the longest link in the global supply chain that provides vital goods to businesses, government and consumers American. The supply chain - specified the World Shipping Counci - it is not foreign, it is global".

"It is understandable - continues the note - that the regulatory authorities ask questions about current market conditions. Liner maritime transport is a sector monitored very closely and the companies have answered and will continue to answer these questions. But - ha underlined the World Shipping Council also referring to the findings of the FMC investigation - the fact is that the vectors seafarers actively compete against each other in the market global, including on the most important sea routes for U.S. trade. The Federal Maritime Commission, the U.S. regulatory expert who oversees transportation international maritime, has just completed an investigation of two years on the international maritime supply chain discovering that competition between sea carriers is "sustained" and that, if the tariffs for the maritime carriage of goods are elevated, this is "exacerbated" by the pandemic, from an unexpected and unprecedented increase in the spending of consumers, particularly in the United States, and congestion of the supply chain, and are the result of market forces supply and demand'.

The World Shipping Council also pointed out that the FMC has noted that "those responsible for competition in the Union European, China and Federal Maritime Commission discuss with regularity of our maritime transport markets and to date, they have found no indication that the current prices of liner shipping are the result of a collusive or illegal conduct by major carriers seafarers in our markets".

Referring then to President Biden's statements, according to to which there would be only nine large shipping companies, united in three alliances, which carry out transports from Asia to the USA, the WSC reiterated that there are 13 other scheduled shipping companies operating on this route to date making more than 30% of departures from Asia to the United States. "In fact - he specified the association - during the pandemic the competition has increased with the entry into the market of new companies and the share of major alliances has decreased. Reporting verbatim part of the Federal's assessments Maritime Commission, the WSC recalled that "the investigation of the FMC also reports that " individual maritime carriers within each alliance they continue to compete in a autonomous and resolute both in relation to tariffs and practices marketing. Individual shipping carriers within the framework of alliances - specifies the report of the FMC - continue to add and to withdraw ships from traffic both within and outside the alliances in which they participate and, in particular, in trade transpacifics, new entrants have made their entry into these Trades. The transpacific market is very much of a contestable'.'

Finally, referring to the very high level of tariffs of the containerized maritime transport services, the WSC has taken over that 'there is no doubt that maritime carriers, after two decades of low or no margins and abundant capacity and cheap for chargers, they are actually making profits'. The association, as already highlighted in occasion of the green light of the House of Representatives to the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, pointed out that these profits are invested in creating additional capacity of transport both by sea and by land and reiterated that as long as American land infrastructure will continue to be congested, unable as they are to cope with the growth of flows of goods, ships will continue to be stuck out of the leads to the detriment of importers and exporters. 'I maritime carriers - concludes the note of the WSC - continue to move record volumes of goods for our nation and have heavily invested in new capacity: America must take on the same commitment and invest in its logistics infrastructure to earth'.