As author of the Q&A column, Colin Barrett answered detailed and often obscure legal questions on shipping for 48 years, educating generations of shippers.
Friday January 15, 2021
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Regulation & Policy
Regulation & Policy
The global regulatory environment surrounding international trade has never been more difficult — and risky — to manage. From international trade law to customs regulations, trade compliance has risen to the top of the priority list among global importers and exporters. In the age of free trade agreements that link different customs and cultures, the challenges will only mount in the years ahead.
News & Analysis
23 Jul 2018
The Northwest Seaport Alliance argues the market share loss is due to cheaper intermodal rail rates, but Prince Rupert says that is not the case — that two other factors are driving its value proposition.
18 Jul 2018
New York City and the Port of New York and New Jersey are preparing for a future of strong growth and more demanding supply chains.
18 Jul 2018
Declining volume is forcing capacity cuts and heaping additional pressure on carriers battling to cope with rising operating costs.
16 Jul 2018
It’s now an unavoidable fact that the precautions traditionally taken to avoid container ship fires — such as ensuring that stowage plans comply with dangerous goods guidelines and carriers scan bills of lading for keywords indicating the possibility of misdeclared cargoes — are failing to adequately mitigate the risk to crews, cargoes, and ships.
13 Jul 2018
Shippers and business groups argue the current truckers’ freight rate table is too generous and would increase shipper costs and retail prices by double digits. The truckers’ union wants a fair rate table and said it will strike again if it is not obtained.
12 Jul 2018
Although the impact would be significant elsewhere, one port complex in the United States has the most to lose — and in a big way — by a protracted, major trade war between the world's two largest economies.
12 Jul 2018
After a mixed performance in 2017, Europe’s top breakbulk ports face a complicated 2018, despite above-trend European GDP growth, due to the threat posed by tariffs and the reinstatement of sanctions against Iran.
10 Jul 2018
The East Coast’s largest port, with the most complex negotiations, has reached an agreement. The International Longshoremen's Association wants all such local agreements to be completed before the master contract that covers the ports on both coasts can be ratified.
09 Jul 2018
US importers plan to bring in record container volume this peak season, which will translate into an impressive 2018 year-end gain compared with 2017.
09 Jul 2018
Ocean carriers want to avoid being caught up in secondary sanctions that will be imposed by the United States on companies dealing with Iran.
06 Jul 2018
Shippers watching for the way the Federal Maritime Commission rules on a wide variety of issues that affect the movement of cargo may question the quality of analysis and decision making that will result from having just two Republican commissioners on the board, out of a possible five-member bipartisan board.
05 Jul 2018
The suspension decision was implemented after delegates from the National Sindifisco and a politician close to Brazilian President Michel Temer reached an agreement.
05 Jul 2018
A petition calling for a ‘small business’ exemption to the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate has failed, and that means the ELD era has become more entrenched.
05 Jul 2018
Djibouti’s strategic location on the Gulf of Aden makes the area an important military outpost for several world powers.
02 Jul 2018
Although the truck strike has ended, Brazil’s transportation bottlenecks need a bigger government and private sector fix.
29 Jun 2018
Energy prices have risen, lowering the margins of a key supply chain performer, and that has implications for the container shipping industry.
29 Jun 2018
Industry leaders generally agree that the Goods and Service Tax has tapered the cascading effect of multiple central and state levies on supply chains — and that has resulted in substantial cost and productivity benefits.
29 Jun 2018
Shippers in Argentina, hit Friday by a one-day customs officers' strike in Buenos Aires, had breathed a momentary sigh of relief this week, after truck drivers accepted a 19 percent pay increase and did not strike.
28 Jun 2018
Authorities have asked stakeholders to examine a proposed fast-track/streamlined last-mile/last touch logistics plan for inland container depots — dubbed “direct inland delivery” — which they believe will prove to be another major boon for hinterland shippers.
28 Jun 2018
Europe’s rail and truck transport systems are at a pivotal moment. The two could complement each other and help meet the likely 30 percent increase in European cargo expected by 2030. However, turf protecting could still rule the day, especially if rail views truck platooning as a threat.
28 Jun 2018
Supply chain experts at the SM3 Connections 2018 conference are taking a focus-on-what-one-can control stance, while also counting on more-constructive policies in the years ahead that are likely to support the decades-long globalization trend.
27 Jun 2018
Thailand on July 2 will become the second country in less than a month to ban the importation of certain waste goods, as Malaysia considers similar measures, according to a published report.
26 Jun 2018
There are still differences of opinion among stakeholders regarding the equity of the proposed system for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
26 Jun 2018
The number of hours truckers may drive is getting more attention from Congress, but do bills calling for reform, or the overturn of the electronic logging device mandate, stand a chance this year?
26 Jun 2018
In this Notebook — Electronic logging devices, the US House of Representative's proposed HOURS act, and more about blockchain.
25 Jun 2018
The immediate impact of lost export opportunities because of retaliation by US trading partners to the Trump administration’s tariffs is a major, negative development for US businesses. Even so, the longer-term damage from the erosion of the US’s reputation as a reliable supplier of agricultural products should really concern beneficial cargo owners, ag exporters have been told.
25 Jun 2018
The UK logistics sector is becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of post-Brexit trade system progress. While other EU states are recruiting extra customs officials at their leading ports, including Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Calais, the British government has yet to unveil its spending plans to ease post-Brexit traffic through the country’s key shipping hubs.
22 Jun 2018
Brazil has displaced the United States as the top soy exporter, and it won’t be long before it moves ahead of the United States as the world’s leading corn exporter.
22 Jun 2018
Two can play at the tariff game, as trade analysts warned, and US agriculture exporters will be hurt disproportionately by US trading partners’ initial retaliatory tariffs.
21 Jun 2018
Two proposals moving forward at the Port of New York and New Jersey to cut truck moves and curb pollution would provide alternative routes for shippers moving cargo to or from Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island by rail.
21 Jun 2018
The new community, approved by the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and the Federal Customs Service, will work to speed port operations and and decrease shipper costs.
20 Jun 2018
Shippers, carriers, and other participants in the supply chain are closely watching the US/China tariff volleys, but they say the effect on the market so far has been minimal, although that could change.
20 Jun 2018
A coalition of trade groups wants Congress to advance a controversial plan that would get younger truck drivers on the road. Can they gain traction?
19 Jun 2018
Shippers that send goods through the Port of Montreal, and other Canadian ports, should be wary that underlying their apparent efficiency is a union contract system that Madeleine Paquin, president and CEO of Logistec, believes could create problems due to its inflexibility and inability to create work practices in tune with a modern port.
19 Jun 2018
The Canadian economy is “humming,” an economist says, but can it outrun trade disputes with its largest trading partner?
Commentary
The benefits from an invoice’s ‘ex works’ terms
New year, new review for company internal controls
What faster liquidation for Section 232 imports mean
US NAFTA withdrawal threat plays politics with trade
Complying with EU data rules