Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is indeed an honour and a privilege for me to speak to you this afternoon on the topic: “Regulatory Changes in North American Liner Shipping”.   My name is Tony Young and I am the founder and chief executive of LCL Navigation, an SME in the liner shipping business that does not operate any ships but still transports over 1,000 export shipments a month out of Canada as a contracting carrier.  My company is what is known as a non-vessel-operating common carrier or NVOCC for short, specializing in Just-in-Time consolidations of LCL cargo.  I am also one of the Vice Presidents of CIFFA, the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association and the chairman of the Seafreight Committee.  In my capacity as Seafreight Chair, I have had the unenviable privilege of having to study regulatory matters that affect our industry both here in Canada and internationally.

I am here this afternoon to talk to you about the amendments to the Shipping Conference Exemption Act, or SCEA that came into effect earlier this year and how they impact Canada’s small-to-medium sized importers and exporters and I’d like to do this by comparing them to the changes in the American system, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998, which was the progenitor of the SCEA reforms, and then see if there is any advantage for life in Canada as an SME.

Some of you may be aware that in 1998 the United States moved to deregulate its ocean shipping industry.  What shipping industry, you might ask?  Well, precisely.  The United States, the world’s only superpower does not have a domestic shipping industry.  Its deep sea merchant marine fleet is entirely foreign-owned.  Even the namesake American President Line has been owned by Singaporeans since Neptune Orient Lines bought it several years ago.  Sealand, the other major U.S. carrier was bought out by the Danish carrier Maersk Line. Crowley American Transport was purchased by the German company, Hamburg Sud.  And even the small Lykes Line is now owned by CP Ships.  Do you get the impression that maybe American investors don’t think liner shipping is a good investment?