Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021--A Promising Start

Peter Friedmann, AgTC Executive Director

Agriculture exporters in every part of the country weighed in to educate their Congressional representatives, as to the hundreds of millions of dollars of punitive detention and demurrage charges being imposed on exporters and importers, despite being declared unreasonable by the FMC. The lack of carrier compliance with the FMC Rule (lack of FMC enforcement), combined with ocean carriers declining to accept US export cargo, led directly to OSRA21. 
 
Members of the AgTC: agriculture and forest products exporters and importers, their freight forwarders, warehouse and cold storage, technology providers, and importantly, truckers, so appreciate the dedication of Reps. Garamendi, Johnson and Congresswoman Schrier (D–WA) to finding solutions. 
 
House passage of OSRA21 is a strong start, the AgTC will continue to work with the numerous organizations which initiated and advocated for this bill. There is more to be done, more corrections required to assure a supply chain that serves not only agriculture exporters, but all of US commerce.