The U.S. Trade Representative recently held hearings on a proposal to impose million-dollar port call fees on Chinese vessels. The U.S. Meat Export Federation joined more than 300 other organizations in saying the fees would hurt U.S. exports. USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom supports the intent of the proposal to incentivize U.S. shipbuilding.
“The reality is it’s not feasible right now,” Halstrom said. “It’s going to take some time to become viable, and we don’t want to have our exporters get penalized by other countries while we wait for this to happen.”
Shippers have already indicated they would reduce port calls, including a key port for the red meat industry. “The Port of Oakland represents about 40 percent of our waterborne exports on the beef side,” he said. “We’ve had some companies publicly say that Oakland would be a candidate to stop service if this current policy were installed.”
