The office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) held hearings this week on a proposal to impose a service fee for each U.S. port call of a Chinese-operated ship, or a per-net-ton service fee applied on the ship’s carrying capacity. While they do support the overall intent of strengthening the U.S. shipbuilding industry, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF)- along with over 300 other organizations- pointed out that the fees would hurt U.S. exports.
Halstrom said those high fees could drastically reduce the shipments of lower value products, like pork and beef variety meats.
Halstrom said the proposed fees could also dramatically reduce port calls in key locations such as the Port of Oakland, which is the largest outlet for waterborne red meat exports.
For more information, visit usmef.org.
