DOT SUSPENDS PROPOSED TIME LIMITS ON EUROPEAN CARRIER CHARTERS
April 4, 2019
Last month the Department of Transportation (DOT or Department) issued Show Cause Order No. 2019-2-17 (Docket OST-2019-0031), under which the terms of long-term wet-leases by European carriers would be curtailed to match similar EU restrictions on U.S. carriers. The Order was set to take effect on March 30, 2019, however, DOT urged European regulators to move forward with a draft wet-lease understanding between the governments that would resolve the discrepancy between U.S. and EU carriers in access to European wet-lease opportunities.
On March 8, 2019, the U.S., EU, Iceland, and Norway (the Parties) conferred at a U.S.-EU Joint Committee Meeting in Washington and initialized their draft wet-lease understanding, clearing the way for the document to be reviewed and implemented as EU law. In response, on March 13, 2019, DOT suspended its Order 2019-2-17 until August 30, 2019. DOT reiterated that its goal in issuing the Order had been to stimulate a final fix to the wet-leasing issue, thus the Parties’ agreement eliminated the need to move ahead unilaterally by the March 30, 2019 deadline.
We expect the Parties’ agreement will be implemented in the coming months. No further comments are required at this time, but if you have questions, please let us know.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Alexander Matthews (amatthews@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6633).
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