NIT League, ocean carriers seek to stop ocean container tax proposal

NIT League, ocean carriers seek to stop ocean container tax proposal    Seeking to block a proposal by congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) to authorize non-federal entities to impose new taxes on shipping containers transiting U.S. ports, the U.S. National Industrial Transportation League and the Washington-based ocean carrier lobby World Shipping Council have protested against the proposal in a joint letter to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
      The two industry associations have urged committee chairman Don Young (R.-Ark.) and ranking minority member James Oberstar (D.-Minn.) not to allow the Rohrabacher proposal to be added as a floor amendment to the Water Resources Development Act of 2003.
   The NIT League said that Rep. Rohrabacher, who represents the Long Beach-Los Angeles area, wants to allow port authorities to assess container fees to finance the cost of construction and maintenance of infrastructure projects, and to fund security services.
   “He recently introduced a bill to allow such fees,” the NIT League said. “Estimates pegged the fee as much as $100 for each cargo container that entered or left a port.”
   “The amendment would have serious adverse consequences on both cargo users and service providers and should be subject to close examination,” World Shipping Council president Christopher Koch and NIT League executive vice president Peter Gatti said in their joint letter to Young and Oberstar.
   The two industry associations said that the American Association of Port Authorities also opposes the proposal.
   The NIT League and the World Shipping Council told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that the Rohrabacher proposal would be inconsistent with U.S. treaty obligations, such as those under the Customs Convention of Containers of 1973.
   The associations also complained that the proposal “provides no guidance to or limitation on what kind of projects could be funded by the new tax,” and that it requires no link that “such a new tax on containers be for a project directly involving the transportation of containers.”
   Noting that the proposed amendment has not been considered by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the two associations urged the committee to consider the proposal and stop it being added to the Water Resources Development Act legislation presently being considered by the House of Representatives.