Business: Piracy or Profit on the High Seas?

The Soviet fleet flattens the cargo cartels

Few global economic issues have generated so much vitriol as the Soviet Union's drive to win more of the multibillion-dollar business of hauling seaborne international cargo. Since the early 1970s, the Soviets have raised havoc in international shipping conferences—cartels that fix rates on virtually every commodity and allocate cargoes—by cutting rates from 5% to 69%. They are gaining an ever increasing share of trade on lucrative routes, such as those across the North Atlantic and to and from the Far East and East Africa. On U.S....