”The threat is real,” said Cantwell. ”The Federal Maritime Commission found that up to 27 percent of container volume moving through West Coast ports is at risk of diverting to Prince Rupert.” Canadian ports have soared from 7.8 to 13.9 percent, with expansion that will allow Prince Rupert to take more cargoes than Seattle, Tacoma and Portland combined.
A bevy of major shippers are finding a way to outflank the federal government’s Harbor Maintenance Tax, threatening thousands of jobs in the Puget Sound area and the lower Columbia River.
The strategy: Go north. Bypass the ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Portland, unload cargoes in Prince Rupert or Vancouver in British Columbia, and then ship goods into the United States.
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., are introducing legislation that would replace the Harbor Tax with a Maritime Goods Movement User Fee, which would be levied on all cargoes coming to the United States from the Asia-Pacific market, including those that enter North America via ports in Canada and Mexico.
The purpose of replacing the existing tax was explained by Cantwell: “We need to have a level playing field for our ports.”