A US congressional committee was urged to adopt differing lines on shipping conference reform with some lobbyists wanting to do away with them altogether while others told the lawmakers to wait and see what happens when Europe bans them in October.
"We've never had an opportunity to say, 'what does it look like when you don't have this system," said Stanley Sher, acting president of the World Shipping Council, a group that represents ocean carriers. "In Europe we now have that opportunity."
Mr Sher was addressing the Maritime and Coast Guard subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and was responding to pleas to do away with the anti-trust immunity enjoyed by shipping lines under the US Shipping Act.
For example, Michael Berzon, of the National Industrial Transportation League, said: "The Antitrust Modernisation Commission told Congress last year that the antitrust immunity afforded liner carriers has outlived any utility and should be repealed."
But Mr Sher said: "Let's get the facts and then take a look at the system and see how it has worked in Europe. If it hasn't worked and there are problems we can learn from it. We don't have to learn on the job ourselves. If it turns out that there are benefits, we are perfectly prepared to look at it. Our point is that the system works, works well now and it seems to us that the one changing should have the burden."
Farm lobbyist Peter Friedmann, of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, said the immunity was undermining exports because it provided a lack of motive to provide more capacity to move container cargo from North America.
They "could be exporting 20 per cent to 30 per cent more depending on sector, particularly poultry if there was more shipping capacity out of this country," he said.
But Mr Sher said it was a "very unusual situation" that has developed with export capacity on liner services becoming tight in recent months for the first time in a decade.
However, Mr Friedman said he did not believe this a "temporary blip" attributable to the weak dollar, saying that demand for US food is growing because of increased wealth in Asia and developing countries.
|
