Arlington, VA, December 8, 2021 – The following statement is attributed to Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, regarding the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021 (OSRA).

“Congress took a big step toward fixing supply chain issues and addressing serious cost increases on consumer products. The ten largest shipping companies in the world—none of them American—control 80% of the shipping market. As American businesses struggle to ensure the availability of goods on shelves, ocean shippers have been exploiting supply chain challenges for an exorbitant profit.  They are leveraging port delays to impose exorbitant fees for time that containers spend waiting to be unloaded, even when those containers cannot yet access the port. These penalties drive inflation and harm U.S. businesses, workers and consumers.  More, ocean shippers are refusing to load and carry U.S. exports, preferring to quickly return containers across the ocean for the more lucrative Asia – U.S. route.

“Passing OSRA will put an end to ocean shipper abuses and misbehavior—allowing manufacturers to export at lower costs and Americans to buy the tech products they love and rely on at reasonable prices. We applaud the House’s bipartisan passage of this bill and urge the Senate to make quick work of sending it to the president’s desk for signature.  We also call on Congress to go further and follow repeated requests by the Justice Department to remove the outdated and unjustifiable antitrust exemption, which gives foreign shippers a free pass to collude and raise prices to the detriment of U.S. consumers.”