CREEL SAYS FMC WILL PROTECT BROADER INTERESTS THAN U.S.-FLAG CARRIERS

   Harold Creel, chairman of the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, said that the agency still has a role to play to fight restrictive foreign shipping laws and policies following the wholesale takeover of U.S shipping lines by non-U.S. companies.
    "Foreign carriers have taken over the operations of major U.S. carriers, such as Lykes and APL, and now Sea-Land and Crowley," Creel told a meeting of the American Association of Port Authorities in New York.
    Creel said that a legitimate question for the Commission is whether and how the acquisition of major U.S, carriers by foreign companies will affect the Commission’s role in addressing restrictive foreign shipping practices.
    The most publicized recent case was the Japan case, in which the agency "took decisive measures on behalf of U.S. companies operating U.S.-flag vessels," he said. But the interests the FMC has sought to protect are broader and more varied than "pure" U.S. companies flying the U.S. flag, Creel said.
    "We have taken action on behalf of U.S. carriers flying foreign flags; on behalf of foreign carriers flying the U.S. flag; on behalf of foreign carriers flying a third flag, when they have been unfairly precluded from serving U.S. shippers in our foreign trade; when a Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier was harmed by unfair foreign laws restricting its operations; and on behalf of shippers who were being denied their choice of carrier because of restrictive foreign laws and policies," he explained.