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International Trade and Transportation

According to the World Bank Global trade estimates, a one percent reduction in maritime and air transport services can account for as much as US$7 billion (1997) dollars. If trade facilitation is considered in a broader sense, there are four categories to consider port efficiency, customs environment, regulatory environment, and service sector infrastructure.

I would like to take issue with the regulatory environment in general and with the conference system in particular and its anti-trust immunity.
The House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries investigated conferences from 1912 to 1914 and found that conference agreements were used to restrict competition among the conference members. After 1916, conferences began using dual-rate contracts. Under dual-rate contracts, shippers that signed loyalty contracts with conferences received lower tariff rates. Shippers that agreed to reserve all or some specified portion of their cargo for the contracting conference received in return a discount, usually 15 percent, from the applicable tariff rate. Independent carriers argued that this practice was unfair, and in 1958 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled "that dual-rate contracts were unlawful and that their purpose was to stifle non-conference carrier competition." In my opinion the bigger issue is that carriers were manipulating international trade by providing preferential pricing to some and not to others. For instance, if a country didn't have its own merchant marine and had to depend on foreign flag carriers to get products to market these carriers could make the landed cost of the merchandise noncompetitive in a specific market. This had the unwarranted result of preventing countries, businesses or individuals from participating in those markets.
During the years of 1980, 1981, 1984, 1995, 1997, and 1998 Congressional Acts were passed to calibrate policy objectives of promoting U.S. foreign commerce. According to its sponsors, these Acts were passed in order to insure competitive rates for international trade. At the same time, it helped protect carriers from anti-trust action for setting freight rates in block, which is also known as price fixing.
Carriers argued that conferences were needed in the hopes of solving problems of over capacity, rate protection, and operating losses in the millions of dollars. Conferences maintain control over membership lines, in general, by offering rate stability and preventing

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