[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 156 (Tuesday, November 13, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11716-S11717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CARGO LIABILITY REFORM

  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Madam President, today I take notice of a recent 
positive development in the creation of a more modern legal regime for 
international shipping. I was very pleased to see that America's 
importers and exporters and the ocean carriers that transport America's 
international trade reached agreement last month on

[[Page S11717]]

the form and substance of international cargo liability reform.
  While this is a field with which most of us are at best only vaguely 
familiar, it has been the subject of intense debate in maritime circles 
for many years. In fact, draft reform legislation proposed by the 
Maritime Law Association of the United States was the subject of a 
hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee in 1998. Similar draft 
legislation was also reviewed by the Subcommittee on Surface 
Transportation and Merchant Marine during the last Congress under the 
leadership of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Because of the inability of 
the commercial parties to agree on how or whether to proceed with such 
a proposal, however, the legislation was never introduced.
  Last month, the World Shipping Council, representing the ocean 
shipping companies serving America's foreign trades, and the National 
Industrial Transportation League, representing American importers and 
exporters, announced that they had reached agreement on cargo liability 
reform. They issued a joint statement outlining their agreement and 
pledged to work through the process to be established by the U.N. 
Commission on International Trade Law, (UNCITRAL), to assist in the 
development and ratification of a new international cargo liability 
convention. The goal of this effort is to produce an internationally 
acceptable instrument that can be ratified by the United States and our 
trading partners.
  Most parties are in agreement that the U.S. law governing cargo 
liability, which dates back to 1936, can benefit from being updated, 
ideally in the context of a uniform international legal regime. What 
they have not been able to agree on, until now, is what real reform 
should look like.
  The shippers and carriers have also agreed on a reasonable timetable 
for pursuing an international solution, and the shippers will forego 
their push for U.S. legislation so long as the international process 
produces an acceptable convention within this timeframe.
  I commend the carriers and shippers for agreeing to set aside their 
decades of differences on this issue and for trying to help produce an 
agreement that can be adopted by the United States. I also want to 
commend my colleague, Senator John Breaux, for his interest and 
leadership on this very important issue. As the ranking Republican on 
the Senate Subcommittee for Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine, 
which Senator Breaux chairs, I will work closely with him to keep a 
watchful eye on this process and to consult with the World Shipping 
Council and the NIT League, as well as with all other interested 
parties over the next few years to receive progress reports.
  I would also encourage the State Department, the Department of 
Transportation and other agencies within the U.S. Government that may 
be involved in the multilateral negotiating process to consult 
regularly with the commercial parties and include them directly in the 
intergovernmental process.
  As you can tell, I have two critical goals for this process: one, I 
want all relevant parties to work together for a commercially and 
politically-acceptable agreement for our trading partners; and, two, I 
want the U.S. Government to be a helpful and productive partner in this 
process. While these negotiations go on, I will be monitoring things 
closely, and hope that a positive international agreement can come 
together in the not-too-distant future.

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