Among the multitude of lessons provided by the COVID-19 pandemic, one is the importance of ports to the economy of Washington and the rest of the United States. Gridlock at the nation’s ports has slowed the delivery of goods and has contributed to high rates of inflation.
The Biden administration announced this week that help is on the way for beleaguered ports. But more must be done to improve supply chains and grease the way for a smooth economic recovery.
Nearly $450 million in federal funding under last year’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be made available to ports through competitive grants, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. The grants are aimed specifically at reducing bottlenecks and will be available annually for five years. That amount doubles last year’s total of federal funding for ports.
The impact of ports can be seen in Clark County. The Port of Vancouver, which has carved out a significant niche in imports for the wind-energy industry, saw record revenue of $50.36 million in 2020. That marked a 15 percent increase over 2019, despite COVID-related difficulties.
“The wind really helped us overcome a lot of our challenges here at the port this year, because we saw some of our other commodities really struggle over the course of the year,” Chief Commercial Officer Alex Strogen said last year. “Having a really diverse cargo mix really, quite frankly, saved our rear ends.”
Up and down the West Coast, from Bellingham to San Diego, ports serve as engines that help power the national economy. The Port of Los Angeles is the country’s most active, while the Port of Long Beach (Calif.) ranks third. The Port of Seattle reported operating revenue of $510 million for 2020.
Washington is regarded as the most trade-dependent state in the union, and the Washington Council on International Trade asserts that 40 percent of all jobs in the state are tied to international commerce.
That status has been challenged as the pandemic has altered operations at ports. The quick explanation: The pandemic and shutdown orders led more people to spend money on goods rather than experiences and led to sharp increases in orders for imported goods, particularly from Asia. That created traffic jams of sorts at West Coast ports, with ships waiting for weeks or even months to offload their bounty.
As Tom Bellerud of The Northwest Seaport Alliance said last year: “We are seeing a historic surge of cargo volume coming into our ports. The terminals are having a difficult time keeping up with processing all the cargo off these vessels fast enough.”
The situation has eased somewhat, but not enough to unclog the economy. Meanwhile, Washington ports also are tasked with sending agricultural and manufactured goods from our state and the Western U.S. to consumers around the globe. Any slowdown has a vast impact on the local economy; Washington has 75 port districts (most of which do not handle container shipments) in 33 of its 39 counties.
Washington’s reliance on international commerce highlights the need for free trade. The Trump administration hampered that trade through misguided tariffs, and the Biden administration has been remiss in not removing those tariffs. For the good of our state and the rest of the nation, the president should couple assistance for ports with a lifting of tariffs.
But for now, any effort to help smooth operations at our state’s ports is a welcome development.
