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Washington Watch tainer ship capacity and control 95% of the critical East- in federal court to stop an agreement between ocean car-

West trade lines.” The Fact Sheet goes on to assert that ocean riers or marine terminal operators that DOJ determines is carriers, “increased spot rates for freight shipping between likely to result in an unreasonable reduction in transporta-

Asia and the United States by 100% since January 2020, and tion service or increase in transportation costs. Notably, increased rates for freight shipping between the United States the FMC already possesses this authority, which it has and Asia by over 1,000% over the same period.” Finally, the rarely exercised. In addition, the bill would exponentially

White House called on Congress “to pass robust reforms to increase damages available to private parties who claim to the ocean shipping industry, including reforms that address have been harmed by the ocean carriers’ actions. The bot- the current antitrust immunity for ocean shipping alliances.” tom line is that the bill would greatly increase the risk of ocean carriers and marine terminal operators entering into

Congress seeks Shipping Act reform agreements, which many stakeholders argue have increase

Even before being called out by the President, Congress the ef