U.S.-CANADIAN OVERSEAS TRADE DIVERSION

The routing of U.S. overseas trade through Canadian ports has attracted wide public attention recently because of several concurrent developments. In 1971, ports on both U.S. seaboards were closed by strikes, and large volumes of overseas freight which normally would use U.S. routings were diverted through Canadian ports. The Canadian ports, and the rail and ocean carriers who serve them, have greatly increased container-handling capabilities in the last few years and are aggressively soliciting U.S. overseas traffic. Their efforts are being spurred, in part, by the container ship overcapacity on the North Atlantic, which has created intense competition between the carriers both within and without the existing conferences. In spite of the increased interest, little is known of the extent of the actual or potential diversions--either the amounts or the reasons. Since U.S. regulatory policy might be involved if the diversions are being encouraged by certain actions of the carriers, the Federal Maritime Commission authorized this study to: 1) develop definite statistics on the U.S. and Canadian overseas trades which originate or terminate in one country but transit ports in the other; and 2) determine why these shipments do not use home-country ports.

• Corporate Authors:

  Manalytics, Incorporated

  625 Third Street
  San Francisco, CA  United States  94107
• Publication Date: 1972-3

Media Info

• Pagination: 65 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cargo preference; Competition; International; International trade; International transportation; Ocean shipping; Policy; Ports; Trade; Transportation; Transportation policy
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• Old TRIS Terms: Trade diversion
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Policy; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00034658
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Project 2-115
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 27 1973 12:00AM