Imported containers that move to retailers’ facilities on the East Coast may be filled with exports destined for Europe, Latin America or Africa, but “they won’t go the Midwest,” Sullivan said.
U.S. port officials in the Pacific Northwest, saying higher taxes are partly behind the loss of business to Canada, are urging grain shippers to support efforts to change federal cargo fees.
Vince Sullivan, business development manager at the Port of Tacoma, Wash., told the Midwest Shippers Association the Harbor Maintenance Tax is inequitable because the maintenance dredging it supports largely goes to East and Gulf coast ports. Seattle and Tacoma, he said, have naturally deep harbors so they do not have to tap into the fund.
The diversion of container traffic to Canada is one issue, the port officials said, that threatens to strain capacity for grain exporters in the Upper Midwest. The West Coast’s potential loss of market share to other North American ports, they said, will leave fewer containers available to agriculture shippers.