Chemicals Can't Wait

We Need Critical Ocean Shipping Reform Now

Record high shipping rates, anticompetitive practices and arbitrary decision-making from ocean shipping companies are causing delays and shortages of imported essentials, impacting the ability of farmers and others to export American products to the rest of the world and driving up costs for U.S. consumers. Congress can help alleviate this crisis by passing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA).

OSRA will:

• Strengthen the Federal Maritime Commission’s (FMC) ability to take more effective action to protect American businesses from anticompetitive shipping practices;
• Give the General Accountability Office (GAO) the tools it needs to investigate the extent to which ocean carriers have systematically discriminated against the transportation of hazardous materials that are necessary components of life-sustaining products and processes; and
• Improve movement of goods at our nation’s ports, helping to ease supply chain bottlenecks.

NACD and its over 400 member and Affiliate companies are vital to the chemical supply chain, providing products necessary for water treatment, food preservation, agricultural processes, pharmaceutical and vaccine production, and more to over 750,000 end users. The supply chain crisis is threatening the important work that we do.

Critically-Low Chemicals

As ocean carriers price gouge American businesses and jeopardize the import of vital chemicals used in everything from PPE to vaccines and municipal water treatment, our communities become less secure, and our economy becomes weaker. It’s on all of us to find a solution to the current ocean shipping crisis, addressing the needs of everyone in the supply chain.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act will help businesses small and large, like chemical distributors, recover from the economic impact of COVID-19, better navigate rising inflation, and keep essential products in the marketplace, while reducing the strain on Americans’ wallets.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed OSRA three times – once as a stand-alone bill and twice as part of larger pieces of legislation. The Senate passed their version of OSRA in March. Now, OSRA is just a few steps away from becoming law.

We thank Congress for their leadership on this issue and urge them to quickly reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill. Only then can we move forward with the ocean shipping reform that is necessary for our nation’s economic and national security. 

Essential chemicals are in short supply. Prices continue to rise. We need action now to address the shipping crisis before shortages get worse. Chemicals can’t wait.

For more on the shipping crisis and why chemicals can’t wait, check out NACD’s resources here.