President Biden has directed the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate ocean shippers for “excessive” demurrage as part of new executive order for Big Business, targeting “unjust and unreasonable fees.”

From the Executive Order

Shipping: In maritime shipping, the global marketplace has rapidly consolidated. In 2000, the largest 10 shipping companies controlled 12% of the market. Today, it is more than 80%, leaving domestic manufacturers who need to export goods at these large foreign companies’ mercy. This has let powerful container shippers charge exporters exorbitant fees for time their freight was sitting waiting to be loaded or unloaded. These fees, called “detention and demurrage charges,” can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In the Order, the President:

• Encourages the Federal Maritime Commission to ensure vigorous enforcement against shippers charging American exporters exorbitant charges.

DredgeWire encourages readers to look at the two hyperlinks cited above in the excerpt from the order. They go to two Journal of Commerce articles which are two and three years old, respectively. Ironically the story on demurrage refers to an investigation begun by the FMC under former President Trump.

One portion of the Executive Order says:
“Today’s historic Executive Order established a whole-of-government effort to promote competition in the American economy. The Order includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies to promptly tackle some of the most pressing competition problems across our economy.“

The New York Times reported that President Biden’s sweeping executive order on Friday was “aimed at spurring competition across the economy, encouraging federal agencies to take a wide range of actions, including more closely scrutinizing the tech industry, and cracking down on high fees charged by sea shippers.”

The Wall St Journal said “Mr. Biden’s ef­fort isn’t a hard man­date but in­stead a pol­icy road map that en­cour­ages U.S. agen­cies to adopt policies that push back against cor­po­rate consol­i­da­tion and busi­ness prac­tices that might sti­fle com­pe­ti­tion and lead to higher prices and fewer prod­uct choices.”

Meanwhile, according to NBC News, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said “that Biden will direct the Federal Maritime Commission to crack down on “unjust and unreasonable fees” in the ocean shipping industry and work with the Justice Department to investigate anticompetitive practices.”

Link to full text of White House order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/07/09/fact-sheet-executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/