Senate Commerce Continues to Look at SOLAS Container Weight Verification, Say Staffers
Congress is continuing efforts to broker dialogue between U.S. stakeholders on the enforcement and implementation of container weight verfication requirements, Senate staffers said in an interview. Over the past month, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee worked to fact-find and facilitate dialogue between shippers, carriers, marine terminal operators, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Maritime Commission, a committee staffer said. As part of its oversight responsibility, Congress is working to help all groups directly involved to strengthen communications with one another and to gain a common understanding of what bearing the Safety of the Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) amendments could have on global supply chains (see 1602160039). “We’re pleased with the recent dialogue and progress, but we're not out of the woods yet,” said the staffer.
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International Maritime Organization rules under SOLAS require shippers to list verified gross mass on bills of lading starting July 1. Another committee staffer noted U.S. shippers and carriers already safely load ships and provide accurate container mass, adding that U.S. cargo safety practices are among the most stringent in the world. While final implementation remains to be seen, the VGM changes could simply equate to a paperwork exercise for shippers who are already accurately accounting for cargo weights, a committee staffer said. But it remains yet unclear how major U.S. trading partners like Brazil and China will account for their cargo weights after the VGM mandate, which requires a shipper’s signature next to the cargo weight, takes effect, a staffer said.
Controversy over the requirements continues, with the Coast Guard saying it lacked the authority enforce the provisions. The World Shipping Council objected to that assertion in a letter to the Coast Guard Commandant (see 1603030014). WSC CEO John Butler in an interview said he wrote the letter to ask the Coast Guard to reconsider its current stance, and to lead an implementation of the VGM requirement that is closer to what "folks around the world expected." For its part, WSC does not intend to put out any more guidance like it did last year (see 1507010006). "It's really down to nuts-and-bolts implementation at this point," Butler said during the interview. "The revised SOLAS regulation requires that the weight of the loaded container be determined through an actual weighing. Nobody has implemented that today," he said. "When you're talking about millions upon millions of containers to the effect that everything is 'already in compliance,' is a little bit difficult to justify or support."