Date of Award

1985

Degree Type

Major Paper

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Marine Affairs

Abstract

Traditionally, carriers flying the American flag have concentrated on U. S. trades. The advent of new routing strategies in the container age has increased their ability to move cargo between foreign ports. As a result, their dependence on these cargoes is growing. An example is the "Sea Bridge" service introduced by United States Lines. With a round-the-world itinerary, this service may very well depend upon cargo carried between foreign ports in order to succeed. The ability of United States Lines to capture these foreign-to-foreign cargoes may be hampered by rising protectionism worldwide. The analysis presented here is in two separate disciplines. The first section is an analysis of the political impediments to cargo access United States Lines potentially faces with their new service. The second section is an economic analysis of the service itself to determine its viability. The relevance of protectionism to the success of the Sea Bridge service was then inferred by combining the two sections. it was established that protectionism was a threat over the long term. However, other factors, such as the level of world trade, and the actions of competitors, would play a greater role in the success or failure of the United States Lines service.

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