Our marine terminals are invaluable commerce infrastructure, not only to our country but also for the many foreign manufacturers who sell primarily in the U.S. market.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In my district, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handle approximately 44 percent of all of the goods delivered to American shores, yet they are in constant need of revenue for facilities, improvements and upgrades to roads and bridges and rails.
All those trucks and barges that carry our goods to port are vital connections to the only force which can balance our trade deficit: export. We must keep doing what we do best if we are going to get America out of the red.
A lot of the economy is indeed being supplied by goods that are produced offshore. And much of the reason for that is societal.
There are few industries as defiantly opaque as shipping. Even offshore bankers have not developed a system as intricately elusive as the flag of convenience, under which ships can fly the flag of a state that has nothing to do with its owner, cargo, crew, or route.
We are not a trading company. We are a midstream asset company: pipe, storage and terminals. It's an unsexy, dirty business. It's not rocket science.
With more than 67 percent of the Nation's freight moving on highways, economists believe that our ability to compete internationally is tied to the quality of our infrastructure.
Ships are a strange kind of commodity because they're very lumpy, very big individual units, but they're commodities.
Larger Post Panamax ships are critical to securing America's position in a global market, and all our ports, including Jaxport, must be deep enough to handle them.
Trade can really be good for American workers and American businesses.
Although more than 500 million maritime containers move around the world each year, accounting for 90 per cent of international trade, only 2 per cent are inspected. Strengthening customs and immigration systems is essential.
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