Tag: dairy shipping crisis

NMPF Secures OSRA Passage, Looks to Next Steps

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

President and CEO Jim Mulhern participated in a White House ceremony on June 16 to celebrate President Biden’s signing of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA).

The new law comes after more than a year’s worth of intense effort and has been among NMPF’s highest priorities, bolstered through its partnership with the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and a joint member export supply chain working group. The organizations helped to build an influential coalition of agricultural and transportation allies, crafting a bipartisan group of congressional supporters and educating the administration about dairy’s export supply chain crisis.

OSRA directs the Federal Maritime Commission to craft regulations that prohibit ocean carriers from “unreasonably” declining shipping opportunities for U.S. exports and requires certification of detention and demurrage fees that have been incurred outside of U.S. exporters’ control. The commission must also craft regulations that bar retaliation against U.S. shippers. To learn more about additional OSRA protections and the FMC’s pivotal role, see NMPF’s Member Alert here.

OSRA’s passage shifts NMPF’s and USDEC’s focus to the next, equally critical step of ensuring the legislation is swiftly implemented and that the maritime commission develops strong rules to crack down on carrier misbehavior. NMPF and USDEC will be heavily engaged in rulemaking processes and will continue to push for robust congressional oversight of the implementation phase.

NMPF and USDEC is also continuing work with allied groups to address delays, congestion, equipment and labor shortages, major gaps in data, high costs and other issues hampering U.S. exports. As part of those ongoing efforts, NMPF’s Executive Vice President for Policy Development and Strategy Jaime Castaneda participated in the Agriculture Transportation Coalition’s 34th Annual Meeting in June, taking part in the members-only strategy session on agricultural export priorities to identify additional steps in resolving the ongoing crisis.

Ports Progress Critical, NMPF’s Rice Says

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Overwhelming support received last week in the U.S. House of Representatives for badly needed shipping-policy reforms is a crucial step, but far from the only one needed, to ensure reliable exports of U.S. dairy products to growing overseas markets, said Tony Rice, trade policy manager for NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, in a Dairy Defined podcast released today.

Since the Ocean Shipping Reform Act passed the House last week, “We are focused on keeping up that pressure and ensuring both in Congress and both with the administration that there are fixes out there and the fixes are not just a one-time or one-off, that these are going to be some fundamental reforms that are much needed in this industry to ensure that this situation doesn’t happen again,” Rice said.

Rice explains the complexities of challenges facing U.S. port traffic, with ships experiencing powerful financial incentives to quickly travel to Asia without carrying farm exports necessary to boost rural incomes and the U.S. economy. Rice also explains why public policy changes are essential, and how NMPF is working for full congressional package of reforms. The full podcast is here. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file below. Please attribute information to NMPF.