U.S. Ports Take Aim at B.C. Rivals

(The Globe and Mail – Steven Chase and Patrick Brethour)

Both sides make subsidy accusations; American port authorities want Washington to take issue to WTO

Canadian ports are being targeted by U.S. rivals as trade rule scofflaws benefiting from illegal government subsidies – part of a mounting wave of American protectionism as the global recession hammers shipping traffic.

U.S. port officials yesterday brought their complaints against Canada to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, making the case that government help for ports such as Vancouver is partly to blame for a decline in business at American terminals.

“We’re playing Paul Revere on this, but it’s the Canadians, not the British, who are coming,” Port of Long Beach commission president Jim Hankla told Bloomberg News in Washington yesterday.
California’s Long Beach, the second-busiest port in the U.S., has seen container traffic drop by more than 40 per cent from an August, 2006, peak – a decline Mr. Hankla said is largely due to the downturn but can be partly blamed on Canadian investments that diverted cargo from American facilities.

In a draft memo prepared for the Washington visit, a Long Beach port official argued that Canadian governments’ spending on rail and port infrastructure constitute illegal subsidies under the World Trade Organization, a global trade referee. Read more here.