ship shApe 181
In 1982, Senator Howard Metzenbaum scuttled Gorton’s first reform
proposal by threatening a filibuster. The intransigent liberal Democrat
from Ohio asserted that the Gorton plan would ultimately produce higher
prices for consumers. “Metzenbaum took the dogmatic and politically
easy approach of simply saying antitrust law should apply,” Koch main-
tains. “Slade had a more challenging task: ‘How do I write a bill that
would correct the problems with the existing law, and get the support of
shippers, U.S. carriers, ports, and maritime labor unions?’”
Gorton regrouped, assembling a coalition of supporters. It included
the Port of Seattle, freight forwarders and the Washington State Horti-
cultural Association, which represents Washington’s tree fruit industry.
They were all eyeing expanded opportunities along the Pacific Rim.
The Ocean Shipping Act that won unanimous approval of the Com-
merce Committee in 1983 granted cargo carriers limited antitrust im-
munity and a predictable, efficient regulatory regime. Groups of indi-
vidual shipping companies could set common rates and coordinate
sailings without the approval of the Federal Maritime Commission.
Gorton added an important limitation: Shipping conferences could not
prevent one of their members from deviating from the conference’s
common rates. Any shipping line could agree with a customer to pro-
vide service for a lower price than the conference. Gorton believed this
right of “independent action” would undermine the pricing effective-
ness of shipping conferences.
Time and tide would prove him right. Metzenbaum and other critics
fumed, however, that Congress was poised to “solve” a problem by creat-
ing monopolies that would only make it worse. Gorton countered that the
United States was the only country in the world that enforced antitrust
laws in the shipping industry. “My strong feeling is that attempts to en-
force American concepts of antitrust law on an international business are
unworkable and wrong. The net effect is to penalize American workers.”
It was Gorton’s first major victory as a U.S. senator. At a signing cere-
mony at the White House, Reagan pronounced it a “remarkable achieve-
ment” culminating “more than 50 years of effort to make these laws more
understandable.”^ Gorton had taken on an issue that more timid souls had
demurred on, mastered arcane subject matter and patiently assembled a
political coalition of divergent interests to enact a challenging piece of
legislation. While the bill was significant to the maritime industry, it also
demonstrated the legal, political and legislative talents of Washington’s
new senator. Gorton thanked Senator Jackson for his support, but Scoop
said the achievement was overwhelmingly Slade’s.^2