Long Beach backs down on the rhetoric regarding Canadian ports

We can put away the pitchforks and torches, secure the border and get back to finding the cash to expand both Delta and Fairview Ports, the Americans have put away their muskets..

As we outlined on the blog earlier this week, the Port of Long Beach had taken the rather public approach of trash talking the Ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, over what they perceived to be unfair subsidies and advantages to the Canadian ports.

Alas, all that hyperbole was for naught, the threat of hauling Canada up in front of the World Trade Organization is apparently gone.

Friday, the Port of Long Beach issued a statement that advised that there are no plans to seek further action against Canada, as Port spokesman Art Wong outlined the new talking points from California, “We’re not going to start a legal battle with ports in Canada. Clearly, that’s not where we want to go.”

Clearly indeed, according to Robin Silvester, president and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, the Americans seem to be suffering from a sense of misunderstanding, as Silvester puts it, “We are self-funding, and a taxpayer not a tax-taker. There may have been a misunderstanding about how Canadian ports are funded.”

And so all the excitement comes to an end not with a battle but with a retreat, perhaps it's all for the best for America anyways.

At one point of the heated discussion, they called on the spirit of Paul Revere for American law makers to rally to their cause, warning of the evil intent of them sneaky Canucks.

Perhaps not realizing that the last time that the Redcoats and the colonists went to battle, things didn't turn out too well for Washington.

.

Not wishing to tempt the Gods, they wisely are moving on to other items on their agenda, like finding ways to get more American government involvement in their own ports.

.

Long Beach Denies Dispute With Canada
Courtney Tower Jun 12, 2009 7:16PM GMT

The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

No complaints filed, or planned, about port subsidies
The sound today at the Port of Long Beach, and among angry Canadian ports, is the sound of wind rushing out of the sails of a dispute over alleged port subsidies.

Long Beach, the second-busiest port in the U.S., whose container traffic has dropped markedly over recent months, did not make a complaint about Canada to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, as news media reported, and is not even thinking of it.

“We’re not doing either,” Art Wong, port spokesman, told The Journal of Commerce. “We’re not going to start a legal battle with ports in Canada. Clearly, that’s not where we want to go.”

“I’m not surprised,” answered Robin Silvester, president and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. Port Metro Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert had been cited by a Long Beach officer as receiving government subsidies that helped to take container business away from the West Coast of the United States.

“I don’t think there were any grounds for a formal protest at all,” Silvester said in an interview.

“There is no direct government support to our port or any of the main Canadian ports,” he said. “We are self-funding, and a taxpayer not a tax-taker. There may have been a misunderstanding about how Canadian ports are funded.”

International and Canadian media reported earlier this week that the Port of Long Beach was blaming part of its traffic downturn on Canadian government investments that it said resulted in diversion of cargo from U.S. ports.

A memo written by Alex Cherin, managing director of trade relations and port operations at Long Beach, was disclosed by Long Beach officials in Washington to lobby Congress for more federal support for port projects. It said government investments for road and rail improvements in the Vancouver area and Prince Rupert should be challenged “as violative of WTO trade obligations.” But Wong claims this spending is only cited to help persuade Congress into more funding.

The issue raised exclamations of “hogwash” and stronger expletives from port people in Canada, who have long bemoaned the fact that ports receive no government funding while U.S. ports receive federal, state and municipal support.

There is federal and provincial support for road improvements and rail grade separations to make traffic flow better, which indirectly benefits the Vancouver ports.

As for cargo diversion, Silvester said, “Between Vancouver and Prince Rupert, we think that year-to-date there have only been 54,000 TEUs of U.S.-market containers handled, in the same period that Long Beach handled 1.5 million TEUs.” Vancouver’s business, he said, is almost entirely in handling Canadian-market containers.