b'6American Journal of Transportation ajot.comObservations from the news of 2021By George Lauriat, AJOTTwenty-twenty-onewasthecontainersfaster.And clearlyaninflectionpointtheimportanceofaddress-forinternationaltradeanding the needs of the shippers transportation. It is clear thatwas further amplified by the theyear2021waslikenorecent passage by the House other. There were a numberof the bipartisan Ocean Ship- ANALYSIS & PERSPECTIVE 21ofoverarchingeventsinpingReformActof2021, 2021thathaveimpactsonH.R. 4996, which passed by all aspects of our daily livesa convincing 364-60 vote and and will continue to do so foris expected to easily pass in years to come.the Senate. Whilerecoveryfigura- PeterFriedmann,a tivelyandliterallyfromthewell-knownDC-basedtrade COVID-19globalpandemiclobbyist, who represents Agri-is underway, with new vari- culture Transportation Coali-antsandrisingcases,itistion (AgTC) and the Coalition obviousthatdisruptionsareofNewEnglandCompa-stillintheforecast.WHOniesforTrade(CONECT) (World Health Organization)commentedonthepassage inlateNovembersaidthat(NEWScontinued on the Omicron variant discov- page 15) A full Port of Long Beach container yard during the supply chain backup.eredinSouthAfricacould turnintothenextwaveof infectionsandcouldsetoff another round of lockdowns anddisruptionstolifeand global commerce. Perhapsmorethanany othereventinrecenttime, COVID-19exposedthefra-gilityofthemodernsupply chain.TheCOVID-19pan-demic,unlikeaneconomic downturnorlocalizeddis-ruptions,couldcripplelife anywheremanufacturers, farmers, ports, truckers, trans-portationprovidersandulti-mately consumers. And while apost-pandemiceconomic reboundisunderway,the return to a pre-pandemic style supply chain is untenable.Ofcourse,thesupply chain was a big story in 2021 and will be in 2022. Begin-ningwiththecontainership Ever Givens March mishap closingtheSuezCanal,the supplychainhasbecome mainstreamnews.Thecon-gestion at U.S. ports, particu-larly the San Pedro ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, caught national attention. The delays have impacted nearly everyone. The underappreci-ated complexity of the supply chain came into full view as one missing component from asuppliercouldaddweeks to the shipping of a manufac-tureditem.Oncesomething akintothechipshortage creeps into the manufacturing mix,theentireprocesscan grind to an aggravating halt. InaSeptemberletter, 70agricultureassociations delivered another urgent plea for intervention to President Biden. This was followed by theBidenAdministrations movestoaddressdeten-tionanddemurrageissues. TheportsofLAandLong Beach took bold measures in the words of Port of Long BeachExecutiveDirector MarioCorderoinlevying surcharges on the carriers to provideincentivetomove'