b'may 25 - june 21, 2020Agriculture trAnsportAtion 21Overweight shipping containersChina trade expert says US farm deal causing controversy hinges on tensions easingChina is still willing to meet itsChinahastheabilitytocom-By Robert L. Wallack, AJOT Americanfarmpurchasecommit- pletethe$40billionpurchases,but mentsaslongastheU.S.createsasuch purchases have to be based on a The weights of international ship- ingAmericasWestCoastportsoffriendly atmosphere for more importsfriendly atmosphere, Li said during pingcontainerscrossingnational,Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland,to take place, a Chinese agriculturalan industry conference held online.ocean and state boundaries are push- SeattleandTacoma.Heexplainedexpert said. LiisoneoftheAsiannations ingthelimitsofsafetytotheAmericanJournalAslumpinU.S.cornpricestomostinfluentialagriculturaladvis-inordertoreachvolumeofTransportationinaa decade low was a good chance forers and an expert on the U.S.-China cost-efficiencies and emis- recenttelephoneinter- China to buy millions of tons of thetrade war. His comments affirm con-sionreductions. Abidingview that we operate ongrain, but the worlds second-largestcerns that the dispute about Chinas bytheoceancontainerthe bill of lading and thatconsumerheldbackonpurchaseshandling of the virus is already spill-weight regulations for ver- the weights on the bills ofbecauserelationsbetweenthetwoing over into trade flows, and that the ified gross mass (VGM) isladingarenotaccurate.nationshavesoured,saidLiQiang,phase-one trade deal is at risk.the responsibility of ship- Thecontainertermi- chief analyst with Shanghai JC Intel- Whiletoptierrepresentatives persasrequiredbythenalsassumetheweightsligence Co. fromBeijingandWashingtonlast IMO,SOLASamendedarelegalandchecksofTensionsbetweentheU.S.andweekpledgedtocreatefavorable and effective since July 1,weightsbytheCalifor- ChinadeterioratedafterPresidentconditions for the implementation of 2016.Blurringtheover- nia Highway Patrol showDonald Trump blamed China for mis- the phase-one deal, Trump said hes weightoceancontainerweights are not the sameleading the world about the scale andstruggling with Beijing in the wake of issue is the different state, county andas the bills of lading and the truckersrisk of the coronavirus outbreak, andthe coronavirus pandemic. China has city permit regulations wherein somebecome liable, he said. threatened more tariffs as punishment.also hit back, with its foreign min-statesallowoverweightdedicatedTheUnitedStatesCoastGuardThats called into question the survivalistry accusing some U.S. officials of corridors near seaports.A web-based(USCG) cannot help when it comes toof the phase-one trade deal, with thetrying to shift their own responsibil-solutionisintheworksbyKansas(CONTROVERSYcontinued onpaceofpurchasesbyChinaalreadyity for their poor handling of the epi-based Oversize.io to address the lackpage 22) slow due to disruptions from the virus. demic to others.of harmonization among state permits and overweight ocean containers.The International Maritime Orga-nization (IMO) based in London, Eng-land issued guidelines for the verified grossmass(VGM)ofacontainer carryingcargoin2014fromtheir MaritimeSafetyCommittee. These guidelines stem from the amendment of the 1972 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). The stipulation is that packed contain-ers gross mass is verified prior to stow-age aboard ships.This requirement is to ensure the safety of the ship, the safety of workers both aboard ships andashore,thesafetyofcargoand overall safety at sea.Thesalientissuefortheocean carrier,portterminalsandtruckers is that the shipper is responsible for weighingthecontainersandforthe documentation.The SOLAS amend-ment provides that there are two meth-ods shippers may use to determine the containerweightoncethecontainer packingprocesshastakenplace, accordingtotheIMOSOLASand World Shipping Council official doc-uments.Method 1 requires weighing the container after it has been packed, or Method 2 requires weighing all the cargoandcontentsofthecontainer and adding these weights to the con-tainers tare weight as indicated on the door end of the container.Estimating weightisnotpermitted. Thecarrier does not need to be a verifier of the shippers weight verification.FurthertoSOLAS,ChapterVI, regulation 2 is that shipper means a legal entity or person named on the bill of lading (BOL) or seaway bill or equivalent multimodal transport doc-ument (e.g. through bill of lading). Theshipperisalsoresponsiblefor ensuring that VGM is communicated in the shipping documents sufficiently in advance to be used by the ships master and the terminal representative in the preparation of the ship stowage plan.The container cannot be loaded unless the VGM of the packed con-tainer is conveyed.Theweightsoftheimported containersarebasedonnational legislationandarecausingsome problems in the United States ports. Weston LeBar is Executive Director of the Harbor Trucking Association, a coalition of intermodal carriers serv-'