Panama Canal forum set for Long Beach

Panama Canal forum set for Long Beach    California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), will hold a forum Oct. 6 to discuss how a widened Panama Canal could affect Southern California's ports.
   The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are individually the nation's two busiest container ports, and together one of the biggest in the world. But there are concerns in the region that when the Panama Canal finishes an expansion project in 2014, discretionary intermodal cargo could desert Southern California in favor of ports in more business-friendly states in the U.S. Gulf and East coasts.
   The forum, “Panama Canal Expansion: The Battle for Jobs and Cargo. Who Wins? Who Loses? Who Decides?', will bring together scholars and industry experts to review the facts surrounding the canal's expansion, as well as to challenge existing assumptions concerning implications for West Coast ports, cargo volume and jobs.
   Speakers include Paul Bingham, an economist with Wilbur Smith Associates (and formerly of IHS Global Insight) and Mary Brooks from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. It's the inaugural event in CSULB's Center for International Trade and Transportation's (CITT) Point/Counterpoint educational series.
   'The Panama Canal expansion is one of those issues that everybody talks about, yet nobody is clear on the implications for the Southern California ports,' said Marianne Venieris, executive director for CITT. 'When the expanded canal opens, importers will have to be aware of other trends that are emerging that could threaten cargo growth through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. On the other hand, some of these trends could end up favoring West Coast ports.
   'The issue is how much of an advantage does the Panama Canal give shippers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot in getting their goods to their final destinations,' Venieris said. 'It's important for our ports because if there are no containers coming in, there's no business and then there's no money. It's not only the ports that will be affected, but also the railroads, trucking, warehouses — pretty much all businesses involved in international trade.'
   The Oct. 6 forum will be held at the university's Carpenter Performing Arts Center. For more information, visit www.ccpe.csulb.edu/citt, call (562) 985-2872, or e-mail Point-Counterpoint@ccpe.csulb.edu.