Port officials talk of world trade challenges

EVERETT — The Port of Everett says it is doing all it can to defend a position as one of the most important handlers of freight on the West Coast.

Economic Alliance Snohomish County and the Port of Everett teamed up for an annual meeting and harbor tour Thursday to stress the port’s importance to international trade and Snohomish County employment.

In fact, Snohomish County is the second-most trade-dependent county in the U.S., said Troy McClelland, an Everett Port commissioner and CEO of Economic Alliance Snohomish County. Sixty percent of all jobs in Snohomish County have some tie to international trade, 20 percentage points more than Washington state as a whole.

“International trade is one of the most under-discussed topics in the county,” McClelland said.

Washington’s exports to Asia of $4,252 per capita in 2012 ranked the state second in the U.S., according to data from the East-West Center.

While the Port of Everett’s shipping volume is up substantially — thanks to imported aerospace components and exported farm machinery, oil drilling equipment and mining tools — two clouds are on the horizon.

Canada intends to poach some of Everett’s business with a national freight strategy it’s been developing since 2000, McClelland said. Canada has invested heavily in the Port of Prince Rupert, B.C., with new rail lines that lead to the U.S. Midwest. And when the wider, deeper Panama Canal opens in 2015, larger ships and their oversized cargo would have one less reason to pay Everett a call.

Port of Everett Executive Director John Mohr also stressed the importance of trade to the county’s economy.

“Three of five jobs in Snohomish County are tied to trade,” he said. “People need to recognize that.”

Canada’s “freight gateway” poses a threat to Everett because the Canadian government offers shippers a lower cost structure, Mohr said. The Port of Everett must levy a federal harbor maintenance tax of one-eighth of one percent on the value of imported goods, even though Everett’s shipping terminal receives no benefit.

“It makes us noncompetitive in certain cargo situations” because the harbor maintenance tax goes to other ports around the U.S. that need dredging, he said.

Reform of the harbor maintenance tax would help Everett gain some equality with Canada’s port costs, he said.

The U.S. also needs to step up investment in roads and ports if the country intends to remain the world’s foremost economy, Mohr said. Its roads earn a D-plus grade while ports rate 22nd in the world.

McClelland said the U.S. hasn’t had a freight strategy since the 1950s, when President Dwight Eisenhower initiated the Interstate highway system.

“We need to develop a national freight strategy … and invest in it with public-private partnerships,” Mohr said.

The port is working with the City of Everett to improve traffic chokepoints that make it difficult to move the oversized freight the port handles, Mohr said. Recent work at the intersection of Pacific and Rucker avenues is an example. The port and the city pushed for the project, even though no regional or state transportation agencies had identified money to improve that piece of a recognized freight corridor.

Guest keynote speaker Sean Connell, former director of Japan and Korea business relations for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Snohomish County will need world-class infrastructure if it intends to compete for increasingly open Asian trade.

The recently approved U.S.-South Korea trade pact will eliminate Korean tariffs on 80 percent of U.S.-manufactured goods this year and 95 percent of goods in 2014, Connell said. Already, there’s been a huge increase in the value of exported aerospace components and produce. U.S. companies will finally have access to long-closed sectors of South Korea’s trillion-dollar economy.

“Koreans want to buy U.S. goods and services,” Connell said.

Japan has joined talks with the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multinational agreement that would further open trade between Asia and the U.S., he said. The U.S. and the European Union have also opened their own trade dialog for the Transatlantic Agreement.

“Both talks present tremendous opportunities for U.S. firms,” Connell said.

Kurt Batdorf: 425-339-3102; kbatdorf@heraldnet.com. More from The Herald Business Journal: www.theheraldbusinessjournal.com

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.