NIT League calls FMC report ?disappointment?

NIT League calls FMC report ædisappointmentÆ    The National Industrial Transportation League on Friday expressed its 'profound disappointment' in the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission's conclusions of its recently released fact-finding investigation into vessel capacity and equipment availability in the transpacific trades.
   The investigation (Fact Finding Investigation No. 26) was ordered by FMC Chairman Richard A. Lidinsky Jr. on March 17 in response to an abundance of complaints from U.S. importers and exporters who experienced service disruptions, rolled cargoes, abrogated service contracts and virtually uniform rate and surcharge increases from carriers in the transpacific trades. The upset in the two-way Pacific trades started in late 2009 and lasted well into 2010.

Lidinsky

   The FMC investigation was joined by two related congressional hearings before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Coast Guard and maritime transportation subcommittee.
   'We were expecting that a 'fact finding investigation' conducted over a nine-month period would have yielded some facts about what happened — or did not happen — during this protracted disruption of the shipping market in the Pacific,' said NIT League President Bruce Carlton, in a statement. 'The commission's announcement failed to include any reference to the findings made during the investigation and is conclusory. The commission also failed to include any analysis of the facts gained in 170 interviews with market participants under the relevant statute that it administers.'

Carlton

   Carlton said the FMC 'appears to have concluded that these problems were simply a misunderstanding between carriers and their customers over their respective contractual obligations. The commission went on to suggest that the solution to the problems experienced by U.S. exporters and importers be developed through collaboration between ocean carriers and their customers with the FMC taking on the unconventional role of a commercial facilitator.'
   The NIT League said it expects the FMC to release either the full report or at least more details of its analysis.
   'If the full report is not forthcoming, we will certainly consider filing a request to see it under the Freedom of Information Act with all appropriate redactions to protect the identities of those interviewed,' Carlton said. ' Chris Gillis