"I also wanted to note, as you may have noticed, we’ve been doing kind of a daily announcement about our competition executive order. So the new announcement that went out today will — focuses on saving American businesses money on shipping costs. In turn, that will lower prices for American consumers.
A lot of American companies rely on railroads to ship their goods domestically and ocean carriers to ship their goods internationally. Both of these industries have grown more concentrated over time. Many freight routes are monopolized because they’re served by a single railroad. Three foreign-owned shipping alliances now control more than 80 percent of the market. I did not know that. I’m learning something new every day with the competition EOs, which I appreciate.
That concentration has contributed to a spike in shipping costs and fees during the pandemic. For example, the index price to ship one container has gone up eightfold. And shipping container companies have charged companies massive fees while their goods sit at ports.
So, this executive order takes several steps to address these problems. On international shipping, the executive order calls on the Federal Maritime Commission to crack down on unjust and unreasonable fees and work with the Justice Department to investigate and punish anticompetitive conduct.
And on domestic freight railroad, the executive order urges the Surface Transportation Board to allow more shippers — allow shippers to more easily challenge inflated rates when there is no competition between routes."