The Federal Maritime Commission is accepting applications from those interested in joining its newly formed National Shipper Advisory Committee, the FMC announced June 7. The committee -- which will accept 12 members from the export community and 12 from the import community -- will meet at least once a year and advise the FMC on the “competitiveness, reliability, integrity, and fairness” of the ocean freight delivery system. Members will serve appointments of up to three years and will not be paid. Applications are due June 30.

Lawyers speaking at the Foreign Trade Association’s World Trade Week event said CBP is already drowning because of the consequences of the massive increase in post-importation tariff exclusions, and they're expecting it to get worse. Michael Roll, from Roll & Harris trade law firm, said he's betting that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will reopen the exclusion process for Section 301 tariffs before summer's over. But he expects it will take until late 2021 or early 2022 for exclusions to be granted, which means many imports that entered after exclusions expired, or that never had exclusions, will have been liquidated by the time the importers learn they didn't have to pay the tariff.

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Shipping regulations should be revised to allow the Federal Maritime Commission to better address unfair detention and demurrage fees, agricultural export issues and a range of other shipping problems at U.S. ports, FMC Chair Daniel Maffei said. While he didn’t propose any concrete changes, he said he is “frustrated” with the situation at the nation’s ports and is speaking with Congress about potentially proposing regulatory changes. “I'm not prepared to go into any details now, but I do think that some things clearly need to be clarified,” Maffei said during a May 5 National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference. “There are many, many areas where the law is vague or so outdated because it simply was written mostly in the time of tariffs, and now it's mostly contracts.”

The U.S. needs a national export strategy and a combination of federal support and digital solutions to address ocean carriers declining to carry U.S. agricultural exports, said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. While he thinks the issue can be fixed, Seroka said it will be challenging.

Nearly 300 agriculture groups and companies urged the Department of Transportation to intervene as carriers continue to decline shipments of agricultural exports. The agency should “utilize all existing authorities” and help the Federal Maritime Commission “in expediting its enforcement options” to deal with the carriers, the groups said, which are sending empty containers back overseas rather than filling them with exports because the carriers can charge higher rates for imports (see 2103050014).

The Federal Maritime Commission plans to permanently revise its regulations to give shippers and carriers more flexibility surrounding service contract filing requirements. The change, outlined in an upcoming final rule, will allow ocean carriers to file original service contracts with the FMC up to 30 days after they take effect, the FMC said April 19. The commission had introduced this change on a temporary basis over the past year to help carriers mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic but will make it permanent after receiving “positive” feedback from industry. Previously, FMC required carriers to file initial service contracts before they were allowed to receive and move cargo under the terms of that contract. The FMC expects to publish the rule in the “coming weeks” and said it will take effect June 2. It also published an unofficial copy of the rule.

The Federal Maritime Commission met this week with lawmakers and held a separate closed session to discuss its investigation into maritime port issues and reports of carriers declining to accept U.S. exports (see 2011200024). The meetings were the first held under the FMC’s new chairman, Daniel Maffei (see 2103310004), and included an update on the “challenges to the freight delivery system,” the FMC said April 7. Trade groups have complained of unfair detention and demurrage fees and other port issues for months (see 2011170041).

President Joe Biden tapped Daniel Maffei to be the new chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, the FMC announced March 30. Maffei, a sitting commissioner, replaces Michael Khouri, who was designated to head the FMC by President Donald Trump in 2019. Maffei takes over during a pivotal time for the commission, which is investigating unfair detention and demurrage practices by ocean carriers and other port issues caused by the pandemic (see 2102250039). “Due to the effects of COVID-19 and an unprecedented import boom, we are dealing with serious challenges to America’s international ocean transportation system -- challenges that the FMC has a vital role in addressing, both on its own as an independent agency and in cooperation with other agencies,” Maffei said in a statement. He is a former House member, representing New York.

The Federal Maritime Commission told lawmakers that it is still investigating port issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2102020050 and 2102250039), including unfair detention and demurrage fees and reports that carriers are declining to carry U.S. agricultural exports. The FMC has “yet to make any final determinations” on those issues but will take action against any “practices that violate the law,” the commission said in a March 17 letter to House members released this week.