Two cabinet secretaries threatened disciplinary action against a dozen cargo lines if they do not speed up service at West Coast ports quickly. In a letter to shipping executives, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urged the shippers to turn to underutilized ports and to stop bypassing U.S. ag exports.
“The poor service and refusal to serve customers when the empty containers are clearly available is unacceptable and, if not resolved quickly, may require further examination and action by the Federal Maritime Commission,” wrote Buttigieg and Vilsack in the letter released on Friday.
While the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calfornia, are overloaded, “other West Coast ports have excess capacity,” including Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon, they wrote. “It is also critical that we restore reciprocal treatment of imports and exports that is inherent in trade. Shippers of U.S. grown agricultural commodities and goods have seen reduced service, ever-changing return dates, and unfair fees as containers have short-circuited the usual pathways and been rushed to be exported empty.”
U.S. dairy groups applauded the letter as a step to “curb some of the bad-faith practices by ocean shippers” and pointed to House passage last week of HR 4996, on a 364-60 roll call. Sponsor John Garamendi, a California Democrat, said the bill would prohibit cargo lines from refusing unreasonably to load U.S. exports.