{"id":4368,"date":"2019-11-21T10:51:34","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T14:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=4368"},"modified":"2019-11-21T13:12:03","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T17:12:03","slug":"remarks-sola-fl-customs-brokers-forwarders-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/remarks-sola-fl-customs-brokers-forwarders-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Remarks by Commissioner Louis E. Sola, Federal Maritime Commission, at the Florida Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association in Fort Lauderdale, FL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you very much.\u00a0 It is my honor to be here today with all of you.\u00a0 In my time at the FMC, I have had the opportunity to meet with many of our stakeholders and visit several different ports; but coming home to Florida is always a special treat.\u00a0 It is good to be home; and I am excited to be here in my role as a Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission.<\/p>\n<p>While I am most looking forward to meeting all of you, I thought I would take the opportunity to introduce myself, briefly discuss the broader role of the Federal Maritime Commission and then provide a few comments about some of the current events at the Commission.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think I need to impress upon you how vital international trade and the maritime industry is to our national economic interests. \u00a0All of you play a critical role in facilitating the U.S. freight delivery system \u2013 and allowing our importers and exporters to efficiently get their products to market.<\/p>\n<h2>Florida Trade Statistics<\/h2>\n<p>Recent trade statistics underscore the importance of Florida and the North\/South trades to our national economy.<\/p>\n<p>So far in 2019, approximately:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>10% of all exports have moved through Florida; 5 % of imports<\/li>\n<li>26% of all North-South cargo enters or exits the U.S. through Florida\n<ul>\n<li>31% of exports; 21% of imports<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>North-South volume makes up 45 percent of Florida\u2019s total volume\n<ul>\n<li>Exports are 53 percent; Imports are 37 percent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>North-South volume in Florida has increased by 2.9 over the past year, and by 5.7 percent nationally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Florida Ports<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Florida\u2019s three largest ports in terms of volume are Port Everglades, Miami, and Jacksonville\n<ul>\n<li>Combined, these three ports handle 95 percent of all volume that moves through Florida<\/li>\n<li>And in the North-South trades, they \u2013 handle 98 percent of all volume that moves through Florida<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As trade continues to grow, we all must work together to ensure an efficient supply chain system that is able to meet the demands of tomorrow.\u00a0 So let me take a few minutes to discuss what we do, including some of the recent steps we have taken to meet our mission.<\/p>\n<p>Our mission is to ensure a competitive and reliable international ocean transportation system \u2013 a system which supports the U.S. economy while protecting the public from unfair and deceptive practices.\u00a0 To carry out that mission, we focus on promoting competition, not individual competitors.<\/p>\n<p>As it relates to the Carriers and the MTOs, and on the 10,000-foot level, the Commission administers a focused antitrust regime by continually monitoring cooperative agreements which are filed at the Commission.\u00a0 These collaborative agreements among competitors allow operating efficiencies and cost savings; and affords the Commission the ability to monitor for signs of improper collusion or overly anticompetitive behavior. \u00a0Our ongoing monitoring and compliance systems are constantly evolving in response to changes in the industry and the marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>On the 100-foot level, in the land where many of you operate, Ocean Transportation intermediaries operate as the vital middlemen linking shippers and the carriers.\u00a0 We regulate by ensuring OTIs are licensed, financially responsible and are following the ground rules. \u00a0Our goal is to make sure that the system is working for all of you.\u00a0 We work to ensure that your cargo moves when it should and is available for pick up when it is supposed to be.<\/p>\n<h2>Agency Collaboration<\/h2>\n<p>We also work with other federal agencies by sharing information so that we can all meet our missions most effectively.\u00a0 Some of the other federal agencies we collaborate with include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>S. Customs and Border Protection (Automated Commercial Environment)<\/li>\n<li>S. Census (Automated Export System and the International Trade Data System)<\/li>\n<li>S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Member of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Collaboration with other federal agencies is a win-win.\u00a0 It provides efficiencies for the shipper by eliminating redundancy in the collection of information \u2013 and affords the federal agencies access to information which may otherwise be more difficult to obtain. \u00a0At the end of the day \u2013 we (federal agencies and commercial operators) have common interests.\u00a0 We all want our maritime transportation networks to operate on a level playing field and to protect our vital national economic and security interests.<\/p>\n<h2>Detention and Demurrage<\/h2>\n<p>I noticed that FCBF\u2019s mission \u201cis to act as a forum for the interchange of ideas, promote greater knowledge and understanding among its members, encourage unity of purpose, ideals and ethics.\u201d\u00a0 Your mission seems to capture Commissioner Dye\u2019s approach to addressing concerns relating to detention and demurrage practices.<\/p>\n<p>As all of you know well, there had been concerns raised regarding the detention and demurrage practices of some carriers and marine terminal operators.\u00a0 Commissioner Dye, who has my utmost respect for tackling this issue head on \u2013 brought the industry together in a collaborative effort.\u00a0 Through many long hours and months, Rebecca pulled together teams representing every segment of the industry.\u00a0 These teams sat down together and gave their bests efforts to find a workable solution.\u00a0 The culmination of those efforts resulted in the recent issuance of our Interpretive Rule of Detention and Demurrage.<\/p>\n<p>I was very pleased to see that the FCBA supported the rule \u2013 and I agree with you.\u00a0 I too believe the rule is in line with our core mission to ensure a competitive and reliable ocean transportation supply system that supports the US economy and protects the public from unfair and deceptive practices.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission received over 100 comments from every segment of the industry – both by trade associations and by any individual companies.\u00a0 Overall, the comments are widely supportive of our efforts to bring transparency to the marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>The interpretive rule provides guidance and clarity on how the Commission will review detention and demurrage practices, and how and when those practices are more likely to be found to be unjust or unreasonable.\u00a0 Importantly, the rule <strong>does not<\/strong> create specific new regulatory requirements or obligations. \u00a0I am a strong supporter of the Administration\u2019s policy of reducing regulatory burdens \u2013 not adding to them.<\/p>\n<p>The rule provides guidance in several key areas.\u00a0 These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Establishing the incentive principle that detention and demurrage practices should serve their intended purpose to promote efficient movement of cargo;<\/li>\n<li>Providing guidance in order to clarify the types of practices which may be found to be unreasonable, including practices relating to:\n<ul>\n<li>Cargo availability<\/li>\n<li>Empty container returns<\/li>\n<li>Notice of cargo availability<\/li>\n<li>Government inspections<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It also Identifies:\n<ul>\n<li>some of the evidentiary standards needed to support Detention and Demurrage charges (billing practices), and<\/li>\n<li>stresses the need for transparent terminology.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Overall, the Rule underscores the idea that while such charges are appropriate at certain times, they should not become an independent revenue stream.<\/p>\n<h2>IMO 2020<\/h2>\n<p>We are also closely watching the implementation of IMO 2020.\u00a0 As you know, the mandate begins in January 2020 and it is estimated that industry-wide compliance costs will run as high as $15 billion a year. \u00a0Given the scale of the increased costs, ocean carriers can be expected to pass these added costs on to shippers.<\/p>\n<p>It will understandably take time for the individual carriers to figure out how best to meet the new requirements, and how to set their surcharge levels accordingly. However, there is currently no platform under which the carriers can collectively discuss or set an industry-wide bunker surcharge.\u00a0 Similar to detention and demurrage charges \u2013 the proper purpose of a bunker surcharge is cost-recovery.\u00a0 It should not become an independent revenue stream unfairly adding costs to an already burdened supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission is monitoring this issue to ensure that carrier cost recovery efforts do not violate the Shipping Act and unfairly harm U.S. exporters and consumers.<\/p>\n<p>With that, let me again say thank you for the opportunity to be here today.\u00a0 I look forward to working with all of you in the days ahead. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m happy to answer any questions you may have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you very much.\u00a0 It is my honor to be here today with all of you.\u00a0 In my time at the FMC, I have had the opportunity to meet with many of our stakeholders and visit several different ports; but coming home to Florida is always a special treat.\u00a0 It... <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"\/remarks-sola-fl-customs-brokers-forwarders-association\/\">Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,31,6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4375,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4368\/revisions\/4375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}