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Issue 19 Do you have a friend or colleague who would like to receive this eFlash, click here. |
Effective April 3, 2006, Pier Pass is increasing the Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF). This fee adjustment will be assessed on all container traffic using marine terminal gates during daytime hours. This adjustment comes after the first regular review of program costs since the Off-Peak program was launched in July of 2005. The new TMF rate will be $50.00 per TEU (20-foot equivalent unit), or $100 per FEU (40-foot equivalent unit or larger), up from the original $40.00 per TEU rate. The fees collected are used to finance the labor, operational and administrative costs of the Off-Peak night gate, and Saturday gate operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
PierPASS said it would regularly review the program costs and adjust the TMF as needed. As planned, PierPASS conducted its first audit of the Off-Peak program, working with an independent industrial engineering firm, the JWD Group. The initial $40.00 per TEU rate was based on a 2004 market analysis and in-depth consultation with marine terminal management. The outcome of the review demonstrated, the realities of current labor costs, coupled with increased understanding of the actual operations of the Off-Peak program, that an adjusted fee would be necessary to run a balanced operation.
At the outset of Off-Peak program, the goal was to divert 15 to 20 percent of daytime movements to nights and weekends by the end of the first year. However, after the first six months, between 30 and 35 percent of all gate activity went to Off-Peak operations.
In the end, the fee adjustment is both a testament to the success of the Off-Peak program to move container traffic in a new way and a challenge to marine terminals to improve operational efficiency and make every dollar count.
Additional information on the TMF adjustment may be found on the PierPASS website, www.pierpass.org.
Retailers and apparel importers in the United States are urging the World Trade Organization to continue negotiations aimed at opening global textile and apparel markets.
The industry groups, responding to reports that the trade body was considering dropping apparel from Doha Round negotiations aimed at opening global markets, in a letter to WTO ministers said that such a move would hinder future growth and revive barriers that were recently discarded.
"Taking textile and apparel goods out of the negotiations on non-agricultural market access is contrary to the interests of producers in your countries because it will undermine their potential for growth and threatens to resurrect the special protection for this sector that was only eliminated a year ago," the letter stated.
Textile and fiber manufacturers in the U.S. want discussions of textiles separated from the WTO negotiations. The European Union this week agreed to impose duties on some shoes from China, Vietnam, to prevent cheaper imports from undercutting producers in the 24-nation bloc.
The U.S. groups pointed out that a declaration formulated at the WTO's Hong Kong ministerial last year "makes clear that sectoral initiatives are not for the purpose of limiting market access, but rather should aim for greater liberalization than the general market access formula. We would support a textile and apparel sectoral that seeks deeper liberalization...but not one designed to avoid liberalization altogether.
"Elimination of trade barriers in textiles, like all other goods, has been and will continue to be essential to the growth of the global trading system and the economic prosperity of both developed and developing countries," the letter stated.
The letter was signed by the American Apparel & Footwear Association, National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders Association, and United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel.
©2005 FMI International