FMC to release report on Canadian/Mexican cargo “diversion”

   The Federal Maritime Commission will release a much anticipated report on “U.S. Inland Containerized Cargo Moving through Canadian and Mexican Seaports” to members of Congress who requested it today and to the general public on Friday.
   The report was reported by several publications to have been approved earlier this week by the five FMC commissioners in a 3-2 vote.
   Press reports on the content of the report have been starkly different.
   A story by the Canadian Press wire service that appeared in the Vancouver Sun Tuesday said the FMC was “poised to chastise Canada… alleging Canadian ports on the West Coast are deliberately luring lucrative cargo business away from their American counterparts.” It quoted unnamed sources familiar with the findings.
   The headline in Lloyds List today, however, says “FMC finds no case against Canadian or Mexican ports” and indicates calls for action against ports in either country are “expected to be dismissed.”
   The FMC declined to discuss the report with American Shipper, though one contact at the commission said the report probably fell “somewhere in between” what was implied in those short excerpts.
   FMC Chairman Richard A. Lidinsky Jr. said the FMC began the study after receiving requests from two U.S. senators and eight representatives on the West Coast. The study looked at the extent to which the U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax and other disparities affect the decision whether to route cargo through U.S. or Canadian or Mexican ports.