Kay Bailey Hutchison: “S. 414 is my bill that was passed by the Senate. It was passed by the House. It is now back in the conference, and there…”

“S. 414 is my bill that was passed by the Senate. It was passed by the House. It is now back in the conference, and there will be an amendment. American ports and carriers are disadvantaged by current laws that require all contracts to be public. To avoid this, shippers who conveniently can, will ship out of foreign ports in nearby Canada and Mexico to avoid this. U.S. ports are bypassed and the U.S. carriers lose business because only U.S. companies have to reveal their ocean transportation costs. This permits their foreign competition to undercut our shippers. Recent economic problems in Asia will increase pressure in those countries to increase their exports. Therefore, S. 414 will be even more important as our shippers meet the heightened competitive challenge. S. 414 attempts to level the playing field between U.S. companies which export and their foreign competitors. This bill will encourage greater competition among carriers. It will provide American exporters and importers with greater choice in obtaining ocean transportation services, and promote more ocean shipping activity for our carriers and our ports. In providing our shippers with this important reform, we have still attempted to preserve anti-discrimination provisions in current law and the elements of our current 'transparent' system that protect our ports, smaller shippers and U.S. workers. This bill balances the need to have enough transparency to assure fair pricing with contract privacy.”