二月二十八日，美国海事联邦委员会和司法部宣布联手 - 降低远洋运输价格和创造和平的竞争环境，你知道对你有什么影响吗？

2月28日美国政府联合了美国还是联邦委员会和司法部宣布了一个历史性的法案：对于降低海运运输价格和创造公平的竞争环境，开始进行大规模的调查。‍

这个法规的精神主要与创造一个公平的竞争环境这一直是美国立法的精神！也就是反垄断的精神。

在过去这一年多的时间里面，中国的工厂贸易商还有美国的进口商所承受的运输成本的增加，包括了：海运运费的增加，码头储存费和滞箱费的增加，码头车架费用的增加，港口操作费用的增加，这些成本的增加都是让美国的进出口公司买单！当然最终还是转嫁到美国的消费者身上！船公司和码头赚得的满坑满谷，对消费者和进出口贸易商产生的不公平的待遇！

美国联邦还是委员会已经成立了投诉小组，针对不公平的不合理的收费，替出口商提供一个申诉的管道.

我们很高兴看到美国政府出面面对这个问题！希望这个法案的执行能够为美国的消费者还有中国的供货商提供一个公平的待遇！‍

以下是这个方案的中英文对照：

FACT SHEET: Lowering Prices and Leveling the Playing Field in Ocean Shipping

实况报道：降低远洋运输价格和创造公平的竞争环境

FEBRUARY 28, 2022

STATEMENTS AND RELEASES

2月 28， 2022

声明和发布

The President is announcing an historic agreement between the Department of Justice and the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to make sure that large ocean freight companies cannot take advantage of U.S. businesses and consumers. Right now, three global alliances, made up entirely of foreign companies, control almost all of ocean freight shipping, giving them power to raise prices for American businesses and consumers, while threatening our national security and economic competitiveness.

总统宣布司法部和联邦海事委员会（FMC）之间达成一项历史性协议，以确保大型海运公司不能利用美国企业和消费者。目前，完全由外国公司组成的三个全球联盟控制着几乎所有的海运，使它们有能力提高美国企业和消费者的价格，同时威胁到我们的国家安全和经济竞争力。

Most traded goods—everything from the housewares you buy online to the agricultural products American farmers market overseas—are transported by ocean freight companies. These companies have formed global alliances—groups of ocean carrier companies that work together—that now control 80% of global container ship capacity and control 95% of the critical East-West trade lines. This consolidation happened rapidly over the last decade. From 1996 to 2011, the leading three alliances operated only about 30% of global container shipping. Significant consolidation occurred in the years running up to the Pandemic.   

大多数贸易商品——从你在网上购买的家庭用品到海外的美国农贸市场——都是由海运公司运输的。这些公司已经形成了全球联盟——由共同合作的海运承运人公司组成——现在控制着全球80%的集装箱船运力，控制着95%的关键东西方贸易线。这种整合在过去十年中迅速发生。从1996年到2011年，领先的三个联盟仅运营全球集装箱运输的30%左右。在疫情大流行之前的几年中发生了重大的整合。  

Since the beginning of the pandemic, these ocean carrier companies have been dramatically increasing shipping costs through rate increases and fees. They increased spot rates for freight shipping between Asia and the United States by 100% since January 2020, and increased rates for freight shipping between the United States and Asia by over 1,000% over the same period. Oftentimes cargo owners are charged fees—known as “detention and demurrage” fees—even when they can’t get access to their containers to move them. The FMC estimates that from July to September of 2021, eight of the largest carriers charged customers fees totaling $2.2 billion—a 50% increase on the previous three-month period.

自疫情大流行开始以来，这些海运承运人公司一直在通过提高费率和费用来大幅增加运输成本。自2020年1月以来，他们将亚洲和美国之间的货运现货费率提高了100%，同期美国和亚洲之间的货运费率提高了1000%以上。通常，货主会被收取费用 - 称为"滞留和滞期费" - 即使他们无法进入集装箱来移动它们。FMC估计，从2021年7月到9月，八家最大的运营商向客户收取的费用总计22亿美元，比前三个月增加了50%。

These historically large shipping price increases translate into higher prices for American consumers. Based on research by the Kansas City Fed and the European Central Bank, these shipping cost increases are expected to contribute to approximately a 1% increase in consumer prices over the next year.

这些历史上巨大的运输价格上涨转化为美国消费者的价格上涨。根据堪萨斯城联储和欧洲央行的研究，这些运输成本的增加预计将导致明年消费者价格上涨约1%。

Meanwhile, the ocean carrier companies are experiencing elevated profits and soaring profit margins. Estimates suggest that the container shipping industry made a record $190 billion in profits in 2021, a seven-fold increase from the previous year and five times what it made over the entire period from 2010-2020. Profit margins have increased by even larger amounts. In the third quarter of 2021, the average operating margin of the major carriers was about 56%, compared to an average operating margin of 3.7% two years earlier:

与此同时，海运承运人公司正在经历利润上升和利润率飙升。据估计，集装箱航运业在2021年的利润达到了创纪录的1900亿美元，比上一年增长了七倍，是2010年至2020年整个时期的五倍。利润率增加了更大的幅度。2021年第三季度，主要航空公司的平均营业利润率约为56%，而两年前的平均营业利润率为3.7%：

Beyond price increases, several specific business practices of many large ocean carrier companies are hurting American businesses and farmers. For example, because of their market power, these alliances are able to cancel or change bookings and impose additional fees without notice. These unpredictable practices undermine American business’ ability to deliver orders on time. All too often, ocean carriers are effectively refusing to take American exports altogether, preferring to speed back to China with an empty ship to make a quick turnaround rather than transport American exporters’ cargo or dock at American ports. This is especially difficult to our farmers, who have spent decades building relationships internationally, only to find that now they can’t transport their agricultural products overseas with any reliability or predictability.

除了价格上涨之外，许多大型海运承运人公司的一些具体商业行为正在伤害美国企业和农民。例如，由于其市场力量，这些联盟能够取消或更改预订并收取额外费用，恕不另行通知。这些不可预测的做法破坏了美国企业按时交付订单的能力。很多时候，海运承运人实际上完全拒绝接受美国的出口，宁愿用一艘空船快速返回中国，以快速周转，而不是运输美国出口商的货物或停靠在美国港口。这对我们的农民来说尤其困难，他们花了几十年的时间在国际上建立关系，却发现现在他们无法以任何可靠性或可预测性将农产品运往海外。

The carriers have also continued to pursue practices that directly contribute to port congestion, such as imposing “box rules” that require truckers to use only certain trailers to haul their containers—thus forcing truckers to wait for the “right” kind of trailer to become available. That leads to lower pay and longer wait times for our nation’s truck drivers, who get paid per box, and allows the ocean carriers to generate even higher detention and demurrage fees.

承运人还继续追求直接导致港口拥堵的做法，例如实施"箱式规则"，要求卡车司机仅使用某些拖车来运输集装箱 - 从而迫使卡车司机等待"正确"类型的拖车可用。这导致我们国家的卡车司机的工资更低，等待时间更长，他们每箱获得报酬，并允许海运承运人产生更高的滞留费和滞期费。

A century ago, in the original Ocean Shipping Act, Congress provided for utility-style regulation of ocean carriers, paired with antitrust immunity for ocean carrier alliance agreements only when the alliance was in the “public interest.” But Congress steadily deregulated the industry—expanding the antitrust immunity while weakening ocean carriers’ obligations to publicly disclose prices and fees and treat businesses and their customers fairly. That is how we have arrived at the point where three alliances can dominate the market for ocean shipping and squeeze American businesses and consumers.

一个世纪前，在最初的《远洋运输法》中，国会规定了对海运承运人的公用事业式监管，只有在联盟符合"公共利益"时，才对海运承运人联盟协议给予反垄断豁免。但国会稳步放松了对该行业的管制，扩大了反垄断豁免权，同时削弱了海运承运人公开披露价格和费用以及公平对待企业及其客户的义务。这就是我们如何达到三个联盟可以主导远洋运输市场并挤压美国企业和消费者的地步。

The Biden-Harris Administration is taking steps to lower consumer prices and level the playing field in ocean shipping:

拜登-哈里斯政府正在采取措施降低消费者价格，并在海运领域创造公平的竞争环境：

•Today, the FMC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are announcing a new joint initiative to promote competition in the ocean freight transportation system. Under the new initiative, DOJ will provide the FMC with the support of attorneys and economists from the Antitrust Division for enforcement of violations of the Shipping Act and related laws. The FMC will provide the Antitrust Division with support and maritime industry expertise for Sherman Act and Clayton Act enforcement actions. The agencies’ announcement explains that competition in the maritime industry is integral to lowering prices, improving quality of service, and strengthening the resilience of supply chains.

This initiative grew out of the “whole of government” approach to competition established by the President’s July Executive Order on Promoting Competition. The FMC and the DOJ are both part of the White House Competition Council established by the Order. Their partnership builds on an information-sharing Memorandum of Understanding that the agencies entered into in July.

今天，FMC和司法部（DOJ）宣布了一项新的联合举措，以促进海运系统的竞争。根据这项新举措，司法部将向FMC提供反托拉斯司律师和经济学家的支持，以执行违反《航运法》和相关法律的行为。FMC将为反垄断司提供支持和海事行业专业知识，以开展《谢尔曼法案》和《克莱顿法案》的执法行动。这些机构的声明解释说，海运业的竞争对于降低价格，提高服务质量和加强供应链的弹性是不可或缺的。

这项倡议源于总统七月关于促进竞争的行政命令所确立的"整个政府"的竞争方法。FMC和司法部都是该命令建立的白宫竞争委员会的一部分。他们的伙伴关系建立在各机构于7月签订的信息共享谅解备忘录的基础上。

•The FMC will continue ramping up oversight of the global ocean shipping industry. Since last summer, the FMC has established a new audit program backed by an audit team to address complaints about carriers charging unfair fees, demanded justification from the carriers about their fees, launched 42 cases investigating port congestion charges, and took steps to address barriers to filing complaints at the FMC and to prevent retaliation against complainants. It also launched a new data initiative to identify data constraints that are adding to supply chain congestion. This month, the FMC also sought comments on reforms to how carriers charge shippers fees.

FMC将继续加强对全球远洋航运业的监管。自去年夏天以来，FMC建立了一个由审计小组支持的新审计计划，以解决有关运营商收取不公平费用的投诉，要求运营商就其费用提出理由，启动了42起调查港口拥堵费的案件，并采取措施解决向FMC提交投诉的障碍，并防止对投诉人的报复。它还启动了一项新的数据计划，以确定加剧供应链拥堵的数据限制。本月，FMC还就承运人如何向托运人收取费用的改革征求意见。

The Administration, led by Port Envoy John Porcari, has also worked with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to develop new fees on ocean carrier companies for letting cargo sit on the docks for over nine days. These long-dwelling import containers had been causing delays in getting goods to shelves while increasing port congestion. Since the announcement of the proposed fee, the number of long-dwelling containers on the docks has fallen more than 70 percent. Building on the success of the proposed carrier fee, the Administration is working with the ports on charging the carriers for long-dwelling empty containers that have been clogging the docks. There has been a more than 25 percent drop in the number of empty containers on the docks at the Port of Los Angeles since that announcement.

由港口特使约翰·波尔卡里（John Porcari）领导的政府还与洛杉矶港和长滩港合作，为海运承运人公司制定新的费用，让货物在码头上停留超过九天。这些长住的进口集装箱一直在造成货物上架的延误，同时加剧了港口拥堵。自宣布拟议费用以来，码头上的长住集装箱数量下降了70%以上。在拟议的承运人费取得成功的基础上，行政当局正在与港口合作，向承运人收取长期居住的空集装箱的费用，这些集装箱一直堵塞码头。自宣布以来，洛杉矶港码头上的空集装箱数量下降了25%以上。

The need for reform to our ocean freight transportation system to improve fluidity and fairness, particularly for our agricultural exporters, was underscored last week in reports released by the Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) as part of the Administration’s six supply chain industrial base reports published on the one-year anniversary of the President’s supply chain executive order.

运输部和农业部（USDA）上周发布的报告强调了改革我们的海运系统的必要性，以改善流动性和公平性，特别是对我们的农业出口商而言，这是政府在总统一周年之际发布的六份供应链工业基础报告的一部分。供应链行政命令。

•The President is calling on Congress to pass robust reforms to the ocean shipping industry, including reforms that address the current antitrust immunity for ocean shipping alliances. In addition to the important administrative actions announced today, the President believes Congress should provide additional tools for the Administration to address problems in the ocean shipping industry. The President is encouraged by action in both Houses of Congress to address these problems. He is calling on Congress to also address the immunity of alliance agreements from antitrust scrutiny under current law.

总统呼吁国会通过对海运业的强有力的改革，包括解决目前远洋运输联盟反垄断豁免权的改革。除了今天宣布的重要行政行动外，总统认为国会应该为政府提供额外的工具，以解决海运业的问题。总统对国会两院为解决这些问题而采取的行动感到鼓舞。他呼吁国会也解决联盟协议在现行法律下免受反垄断审查的问题。