### q13 monopolies stress transportation grids > During the debate over the law, small shippers were apoplectic. “This bill,” [said](https://www.google.com/books/edition/S_1356_Ocean_Shipping_Reform_Act_of_1995/_2XxB8LvOEEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22ocean+shipping+reform+act%22&pg=PA302&printsec=frontcover) Geoffrey Giovanetti of the Wine and Spirits Shippers’ Association, “guarantees that the real marketplace in ocean shipping will be completely confidential shipping contracts to which no regulatory or legal constraints will apply.” The longshoremen similarly attacked deregulation, with the President of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union saying that the bill would allow “large carriers and huge multi-national shippers easily and purposefully agree to bypass entire port communities in an attempt to monopolize the market and inflate profits.” There were warnings that the American fleet would disappear, that a boom and bust cycle would return, that dominant carriers would emerge, that the transportation grid would be stressed, and that the small would become prey for the big. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fmd84q75384zagsjthmwcc98) - [[Too Big to Sail How a Legal Revolution Clogged Our Ports by Matt Stoller#q13 monopolies stress transportation grids|View in Vault]]