Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is telling President Trump’s trade chief, an increased port fee on Chinese-built vessels would devastate American Samoa’s economy. KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
The White House wants to impose an increased port fee of $1.5 million, and as much as $3.5 million on Chinese-made vessels and use the revenue to restore the US shipbuilding industry.
Maritime and some farm groups argue it would take years to do that, while smaller ports would suffer, freight costs would soar, and global supply chains would become snarled.
Congresswoman Amata wrote US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer ahead of a hearing on the plan, urging his office to reconsider its approach and exempt American Samoa for now.
That, until a “more comprehensive strategy can be developed” for the territory.
Amata argues that American Samoa is outside the US Customs Zone and the increased fee to at least $1,000 per ton “would be severely detrimental to American Samoa.”
She points out, both vessels that now service the US-American Samoa trade route are “Chinese-built”, and the proposed fee hike could “cripple our supply chain and lead to a catastrophic economic impact.”
Amata says of most concern for American Samoa’s port, “The proposed fees would incentivize ocean carriers to…cut out small ports like ours.” While servicing the nation’s largest ports.
The Congresswoman complains the result would be “terrible inflation, high unemployment, and a higher dependence on subsidies from the federal government.”
The administration would spend some of the tens of billions of dollars raised through the fees to subsidize a commercial shipbuilding industry that has fallen into disrepair.
And while Amata says in her letter she supports the president’s goal to revitalize US shipbuilding and manufacturing, the latest plan would be a “devastating shock to our local economy.”
She adds, it would “threaten the livelihood of our tuna cannery workers and suppliers…and over 80-percent of our economy, imports, and exports…tied to our cannery.”
Uifa’atali Amata concludes, “Our ability to combat Chinese influence in the Pacific region is first predicated on maintaining a stable economy,” with economic development a US charge under the “Deeds of Cession.”
