Chairman Cordero Participated in 2013 CONECT Round Table

Chairman Cordero joined a round table discussion at the 2013 Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) on October 1, 2013. CONECT is the largest nonprofit member-based international trade organization in the Northeast United States.

The Chairman introduced CONECT members to the role of the FMC and its mission to foster a fair, efficient, and reliable international ocean transportation system and to protect the public from unfair practices. The Chairman also emphasized the FMC’s responsibility to maintain a reliable Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI) licensing program and discussed the Commission’s most recent effort to reduce regulatory burden on the industry while maintaining the credibility of this important program. The Commission’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) seeks to update the Commission’s OTI Regulations, by clarifying and recognizing changing industry conditions, as well as make the Commission’s regulatory process more efficient. One of the proposals under consideration involves establishing a licensing renewal process.

In addition, the Chairman discussed agreements that are filed with the FMC. Although operational agreements can provide capacity to a trade more efficiently than rate conferences that were extensively used by ocean carriers in the past, they are not without risk to competition. The Commission looks closely at these agreements to ensure the agreement is not likely to result in an unreasonable increase in transportation cost or decrease in service.