Cantwell Demands Shipping Reform to Help Washington Farmers, "We are going to fight for these shippers…I will make this the biggest priority of this Committee, if that's what it takes."

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, Chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, led a full committee hearing to examine the Ocean Shipping Reform Act and ways to strengthen oversight of international ocean carriers.
At the hearing, Senator Cantwell outlined several actions that need to be taken in order to alleviate supply chain issues, keep our ports and freight moving, and lower costs for Washington farmers and consumers.

"The [pre] pandemic rates for a forty-foot container was about $1,300 dollars. By 2021, the cost jumped to $11,000 dollars. That's a 746 percent increase in freight cost. This increase means U.S. consumers are paying higher prices for goods every day," said Cantwell. "It is unfair that these consumers are being gouged with these high prices and our very important growers can't get their products to market in a timely fashion."

According to the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, impacted farmers include: hay (including Ellensburg-based Anderson Hay & Grain), potatoes, and tree fruit from Washington state, cotton growers from Mississippi, pork from South Dakota, soybeans from Minnesota, paper products from Tennessee, almonds from California, dairy from Wisconsin, poultry from Georgia, citrus from Florida, and many other commodities.

During the Q&A, Cantwell pressed Federal Maritime Commission Chair, Daniel Maffei, and Commissioner Rebecca Dye, on what the Federal Maritime Commission can do to lower costs for American exporters.

"We're letting everybody come here and make bank…huge increases, our longshoremen actually have increased their productivity, some died even doing it. And yet, this issue is they're making bank and then they're leaving our products on the dock. That's exactly what is happening," said Cantwell. "I'm going to try to get at here is why you don't have the authority and what we need to do to change it because we are going to pass some legislation here."

"We are going to fight for these shippers who need to get their product to international markets, and as a very trade dependent state, I will make this the biggest priority of this Committee, if it's what it takes," Cantwell said.

Cantwell continued, "What in the existing authority right there does not allow you to do something about these unreasonable rates. What is it?"

Maffei responded, "The carriers could defend themselves by saying we're offering space, if they want to pay as much as the importer, we'll give them space and that therefore, we're not discriminating."

"We're definitely going to give you new authority. The question is whether we get it absolutely right. Because we can't afford not to get this right. We can't afford this to continue this way," Cantwell concluded.

The Klobuchar-Thune Ocean Shipping Reform Act would: provide the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) with greater authority to regulate harmful and discriminatory practices by international shipping companies; require carriers to certify that the fees they charge for delays are in compliance with federal regulations or face penalties; increase transparency on how many empty containers carriers are transporting; and prohibit ocean carriers from unreasonably declining U.S. exports that have been stranded at the docks.

Senator Cantwell has consistently championed Washington's ports and coauthored the 2019 legislation that reauthorized U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Maritime Administration's (MARAD) Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP).

Most recently, the program was reauthorized in the 2021 National Defense Reauthorization Act, a provision authored by Cantwell. As Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator Cantwell worked to include a record $2.25 billion for the program in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

In September 2021 Cantwell led a letter calling for increased funding for the PIDP program to help address the ongoing issues with port congestion.

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