Biden signs shipping costs law to help inflation

President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday meant to lower the cost of shipping goods across oceans, a move the White House says will help ease logistical costs for retailers that have remained high since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and helped fuel record inflation.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act passed unanimously by the Senate via voice vote in March after winning bipartisan House support.

It empowers the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate late fees charged by carriers while prohibiting ocean carriers and marine terminals from refusing to fill available cargo space.

Joe Biden, US President said “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."

The president also has stressed that a concentration of corporate shipping power in the hands of a few large companies has fed higher shipping costs in ways that hurt businesses and exacerbate problems with inflation.