American politicians are discussing taking drastic action to force global liners to take all US export container bookings.

A Republican and a Democrat have pitched the idea to the US House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, claiming yesterday American exporters are being discriminated by carriers who are rushing to send their empty boxes back to Asia rather than wait for American exporters – led by the agricultural community – to fill them up.

Californian Democrat congressman John Garamendi accused ocean carriers yesterday of being “price gougers”.

The difference in fronthaul and backhaul cargoes on the transpacific is now more than $10,000 per container, making liners keen to get boxes repositioned fast to make the most of today’s extraordinary freight rate environment.

The proposal calls for changes to be made to the US Shipping Act to beef up regulator, the Federal Maritime Commission’s oversight capabilities, and to ban liners from dismissing export cargo bookings.

John Butler, the CEO of liner lobbying group, the World Shipping Council, dismissed the price gouging claims, testifying in Congress yesterday: “What’s really driving these problems is the massive increase in US imports.” This, he said, had seen the US container imbalance with Asia jump from two-to-one to three-to-one in recent months.

FMC chairman Daniel Maffei was also quizzed on the issue yesterday.

“I think we should discuss the specific provisions to make sure there are no unintended consequences. I would also say we can’t just scapegoat the carriers. There are good eggs and bad eggs in all of these baskets,” Maffei said.

American politicians have been aware of the container shortage issue hampering US agricultural exports for some time. A letter signed by more than 100 members of Congress in March this year called on the chair of the FMC to act quickly to stem the tide of empty containers.

“Should it be found that (carriers) are predatory or unreasonable in refusing to export these American agricultural products or imposing unreasonable fees, they must be held accountable,” the letter stated.