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President Biden – Ocean Shipping Reform Act

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President Biden - Ocean Shipping Reform Act
President Biden – Ocean Shipping Reform Act

President Biden – Ocean Shipping Reform Act

>> Vincent Duvall: Good afternoon. Good afternoon.
Thank you, all of you, for being here.
I know this is exciting day for all of us. Yes.

>> The President: I know you stand for Zippy, but please.
(laughter)
I always stood for the Farm Bureau when I was in Delaware.

Listen:

>> Vincent Duvall: Thank you, Mr. President.
Our farmers and ranchers, like many other Americans, are facing enormous challenges. The drought, the cost of supplies, Inflation and the supply chain bottleneck.

That’s why I am so glad to be here today to talk about the passage of this bipartisan bill. It is time to get America’s supply chain rolling again.

It is a — it’s a testament to what we can accomplish when Republicans and Democrats put their differences aside for the sake of our country.

Our farmers have on an estimate have lost $25 billion of agricultural exports in just the past six months due to ocean shipping problems. Because of the congestion that restricts imports and exports, many other companies have suffered those losses too. And our consumers are paying the price for it.

So, Mr. President, I appreciate and we appreciate your support of this legislation.

You are about to sign into law the first significant reform of shipping laws in 24 years.
(applause)

This law will empower the Federal Merchant Commission to hold ocean carriers accountable. It will also ensure that we get necessary imports into our country and that our agricultural goods can be exported efficiently all over the world.

Our farmers and ranchers, we take pride in stocking Americans pantries and addressing the hunger of the world. This law, this new law will help us. It will ensure that we can continue to do both of those things. As a farmer of Georgia, I appreciate the invitation to be here today.And to be able to say a few words.

And now it is my privilege to turn the microphone over to the 46th president of the United States of America, President Joe Biden.
(applause)

>> The President: Thank you. Thank you. Please. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you, Zippy. And I want to acknowledge Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is here today and knows a little bit about moving things. And you know as well as a dozen members of Congress that are here and both Democrat and Republican, that’s the good news.

A few months ago, my State of the Union address, a part of my plan to lower costs for Americans, I promised to crack down on ocean carriers whose price hikes have hurt American families and American businesses. And today, I’m proud to say that we’ve got that done on a bipartisan basis.

And you did it quickly, folks. In just a few minutes, I’m going to be signing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 to put a stop to shipping companies taking advantage of American families, farmers, ranchers, and businesses, and to bring down prices and give the American people a little bit of breathing room, just a little bit more breathing room.

You want to know why prices are so high? Well, there are a number of reasons having to do with Putin’s war in Ukraine, disruption caused by the pandemic. But one of the factors affecting prices is this. Nine major shipping companies consolidate into three alliances, control the vast majority, mostly shipping in the world. And each of these nine is foreign owned.

During the pandemic, these carriers increased their prices by as much as 1,000 percent, 1,000 percent. While families and businesses struggled around the world, these carriers made $190 billion in profit in 2021, seven times higher than the year before. Seven times higher than the year before. And they raked in the profits and the costs got passed on, as you might guess, directly to consumers.

Sticking it to American families and businesses because they could. Furniture, appliances, clothing, anything and everything across the Pacific on a ship from Asia saw price tags shoot up and families and businesses felt the squeeze here at home.

In addition, these foreign owned carriers have also been refusing to carry American made products back to Asia. That’s the interesting part. That’s where Zippy comes in, the Farm Bureau and others. It hurts the entire economy, but especially hurts our farmers who depend on ocean shipping to sell their products to customers overseas.

You know, I knew that we needed to take action right away, put a stop to these dramatic price hikes and end this unfair treatment. I spoke directly with the CEOs and not just the two that are here today, but from the American Farm Bureau to find out how it affected them and their customers. And I spoke as CEO of JoAnn Stores. Wade is here. Wade, stand up, so everybody sees here.
(applause)

>> The President: And by the way, my sympathies to your the family of your — your CFO who dropped dead very unexpectedly. My best to the family. It’s tough stuff. But you know what he told me? He told me his shipping costs rose by $100 million. More than the company’s entire profit margin that year by $100 million.

I spoke to the CEO of Tractor Supply. Hal Lawton. Hal told me that his company went from paying $35 per shipping container to 20 — or $25,000 per shipping container. I spoke to Zippy, the president, American Farm Bureau. He shared with me the impact it is having on farmers across the country.

So many of whom on markets overseas sell their — rely on markets overseas to sell their products.

Hal wasn’t able to be with us today, but Wade and Zippy are here today because I wanted them standing right beside me when I signed this legislation into law.

What this bill does is extend the authority, something what the federal government calls, the Federal Maritime Commission, which a lot of people don’t know exists, but it’s important.
(laughter)

Which requires our ocean — which regulates our ocean transportation system, allowing them to crack down on these excessive fees and prohibiting ocean carriers from refusing to carry U.S. exports. And sure, it’s going to help begin to lower shipping costs, bring down prices on everything from goods to service — not services, goods to products that the American families need that they make to export as well as import, and ensure that American farmers, ranchers and other exporters are treated fairly.

And I want to thank the bipartisan members of Congress who came together to get this done, especially Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota. John Thune, Republican of South Dakota. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington State. John Garamendi, Democrat from California, Congressman from California. Congressman Dusty Johnson, Republican from South Dakota. Pete DeFazio, Democrat from Oregon. And the committee chairs ranking members who supported this critical legislation.

And you did it so quickly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for working across the aisle and for getting this done so quickly. And I’ve said many times, tackling inflation is my number one priority. Inflation is — there’s no solace as inflation is higher around the rest of the world and gas prices are higher everywhere else in the world; it doesn’t matter. It’s much too high here.

And this bill is going to help bring down inflation, at least marginally, for farmers and businesses all across America.

And more than that, the bill is proof of what we can achieve when we work together on common ground, Democrats, Republicans, and independents, farmers, families in this country, businesses of all sizes.

We’ve identified the problem. We identified the solution, and we fixed it together in an overwhelmingly bipartisan way a vote of the House, very close, 369 to 42.
(laughter)

I remember those good old days, man.
(laughter)

And no objection to the Senate. I hardly remember those days.
(laughter)

And I served there for 36 years. But that’s — but you know, what government can do, can look like at its best. We’re going to have real differences. And we should fight like hell. We differ. And some votes are really close, but there are some things that are just no sense in fighting about. We all basically agree. And what this group of congresspersons have done is they look at it not in terms of whether it’s going to help or hurt one party or the other, whether it’s right or wrong. And I thank you for doing that. We come together to solve real problems facing family. We can get a lot done. And I’m proud that we made it happen.

Now, it’s going to be my pleasure to sign this bill and one I’d like to invite up Wade and Zippy, Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, the Chair of the Maritime Commission, Dan Buffet, as well as all the members of Congress I mentioned to join us on stage. Please come on up.
(applause)

>> The President: (laughs)
All right. Here we go.

The tradition is you give all the members of Congress up here a pen, but we’re not just — we haven’t gotten cheap on you
(inaudible) get a pen and box.
But I’m going to hand this one right over my shoulder.
(applause)

 

Lowering prices for Americans is my top priority, and I applaud the Congress for passing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act on a bipartisan basis, which will help lower costs for American retailers, farmers and consumers. I want to thank Senator Klobuchar, Senator Thune,  Rep. Garamendi, and Rep. Dusty Johnson for their leadership and helping drive forward this important legislation.

In my State of the Union address, I called on Congress to address ocean carriers’ high prices and unfair practices because rising ocean shipping costs are a major contributing factor to increased costs for American families. During the pandemic, ocean carriers increased their prices by as much as 1,000%. And, too often, these ocean carriers are refusing to take American exports back to Asia, leaving with empty containers instead. That’s costing farmers and ranchers—and our economy—a lot of money.

This bill will make progress reducing costs for families and ensuring fair treatment for American businesses—including farmers and ranchers. I look forward to signing it into law.

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