Federal Maritime Commission May 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Maritime Commission (``FMC'' or ``Commission'') is issuing this Notice of Inquiry (``NOI'') to solicit public comment on informal requests the Commission has received from some large U.S. exporters and intermediaries to develop and release container freight indices for U.S. agricultural exports. The Commission is seeking written comments and information from U.S. exporters, intermediaries, ocean carriers, and any other interested parties on (1) Whether and to what extent the shipping public would find targeted U.S. export rate indices beneficial; (2) whether the Commission should extract rate information from service contracts or whether suitable alternatives exist; (3) the positive and negative influences on the export commodities and ocean transportation marketplaces of the greater transparency such indices might provide; and (4) whether, these indices, if developed, should be commodity specific for different prescribed routes or whether more broadly based indices would meet U.S. exporters' needs.