Mike Ezell Grills Witness If Commission Has 'Enough Resources To Protect U.S. Mariners' From China

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During a House Transportation Committee hearing before the Congressional Recess, Rep. Mike Ezell (R-MS) asked Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission Rebecca Dye about protections for U.S. shippers from foreign bad actors, particularly those from China.

Transcript

00:00I will recognize myself for five minutes for questions.

00:04The global ocean shipping market is increasingly dominated by foreign state bad actors, bad carriers,

00:11particularly from China, which raises concerns about unfair competition and potential harm to U.S. mariners,

00:19shippers, and long-term supply chains operations.

00:22Does the Commission have enough resources to protect U.S. mariners and shippers from unfair practices

00:29by foreign state-sponsored carriers like those backed by the Chinese government?

00:35Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do.

00:39One of the advantages of a small agency, I have found,

00:43is that we are able to pivot much more quickly than giant organizations.

00:50And we have reorganized our competition office to combine our economists with our attorneys working on competition.

01:03And I've long supported this approach, and it will make us much more effective.

01:09And we've also refocused our enforcement regime to make sure that we are using those resources effectively.

01:24So thank you very much. I'm confident that we'll be effective.

01:27Very good.

01:28The Ocean Shipping Reform Act 2022, OSRA, expanded the FMC's authority to regulate detention and demerge practices,

01:39investigate discriminatory behavior by carriers, and enhance protections for shippers.

01:46Where is the FMC on OSRA implementation?

01:51When do you expect full implementation of OSRA?

01:56How have shippers benefited since OSRA's passage?

02:01As I reported, we have completed two of the most important regulations,

02:11and we're awaiting to see the final court action on those.

02:16But today, ocean carriers are complying with those regulations.

02:21Very good.

02:21And we get good reports about the operation of those.

02:26We still are working on the exchange registry,

02:33and the small remainder of the discriminatory regulation that we'll complete.

02:42We're also going to complete the new charge complaint regulation to make sure the public understands the approach.

02:51And we're in good shape and compliance with all the reports in OSRA as well.

02:58Very good.

02:59The FMC recently launched an investigation into whether foreign vessels flagging laws,

03:04regulations, and practices create unfavorable conditions for U.S. trade.

03:09What prompted this investigation?

03:12What practices are you concerned about that could undermine fair maritime trade?

03:19These authorities that I outlined in my statement for the record are advantageous to U.S. flagships.

03:29And we believe that it could provide a good grounding for U.S. vessel registry to know that if there are problems,

03:41the United States will go to bat for you.

03:45And this is one of them.

03:48The flags of convenience are really open registries.

03:57Panama, Marshall Islands, Liberia.

04:01And they accept registrations from owners of vessels who are outside their residence.

04:11The United States is a closed registry.

04:13And many other major ones are closed registries.

04:20There has been a concern that the open registries, flags of convenience, are not as effective in enforcing regulations.

04:32And then in some ways, their enforcement has been pushed off onto court states like the United States.

04:45These fact findings, these investigations, are very flexible.

04:53They can be stood up quickly.

04:54They do not have, on their own, authority to require violations or anything like that.

05:07But we'll get to the bottom of this.

05:09And then, of course, we'll inform the Coast Guard.

05:12Thank you very much.

05:13I yield back.

05:14Thank you very much.

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