World Shipping Council
The World Shipping Council is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing more than forty liner shipping companies serving America's international trade. Council members include the largest container lines in the world as well as smaller niche carriers, and carriers providing roll-on/roll-off and heavy-lift services. In addition to ocean transportation, they provide a wide range of intermodal and logistics services to American importers and exporters. The Council's goal is to provide a coordinated voice for the liner shipping industry in its work with policymakers and other industry groups interested in international transportation issues, including: maritime security, regulatory policy, tax issues, safety, the environment, harbor dredging and upgrading the infrastructure needed to handle America's booming trade. Partners in America's Trade The liner shipping industry is a vital, contributing partner in America's foreign trade and economic growth. Over the past ten years, U.S. international trade in goods has doubled and rapid growth is expected in the next decade as well. Last year, U.S. oceanborne trade amounted to more than $700 billion. Liner shipping, with its network of vessels, containers, port terminals and information systems, handled two-thirds of that trade and did so smoothly, efficiently and at rates lower than those fifteen years ago. These low rates enhance the competitiveness of U.S. products in world markets and bring a variety of quality goods to our homes at low cost. Your VCR was carried from Hong Kong for about one dollar; ocean shipping services from Asia added about 40 cents to the price of the sneakers you're wearing; and it cost three cents to put that bottle of German beer in your refrigerator. The liner shipping industry is a constant innovator- linking American businesses directly and efficiently with their customers around the world on a door-to-door basis. The industry is also an essential investor in the transportation system that carries the United States' international commerce. Liner carriers have invested over $150 billion in transportation assets currently in service worldwide and, if trade projections are accurate, they will need to invest billions of dollars more in ships and equipment to service trade growth over the next ten years. With confidence in how public policy will affect our industry, members of the World Shipping Council can build on this partnership in serving America's trade and keeping the country's economy strong and growing.