SAN FRANCISCO — A coalition of importers urged California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Tuesday to oppose state legislation that would slap fees on imported cargo to pay for millions of dollars in port and other transportation improvements.
As an alternative, the Waterfront Coalition, whose retail members include Target, J.C. Penney and The Limited, called on Schwarzenegger to confer with the Bush administration and business leaders to create a “national goods movement policy” instead of what the group sees as ineffective piecemeal state and federal policies.
The coalition’s move comes as the sponsor of a bill that would levy a $60 per container cargo fee announced late Tuesday that he was putting the measure on hold for now. The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D., Long Beach, Calif.), was making headway in the California legislature and passage was considered a strong likelihood in the Democratic-controlled body, which has four more weeks left in its session for the year.
However, Lowenthal’s chief of staff, John Casey, said the lawmaker feared Schwarzenegger would veto the bill and decided to work with the governor’s office and the coalition on a possible alternative.
“We still have another year in the two-year legislative session, so the senator can always bring the bill back,” said Casey.
A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger said the Republican governor, who has made slashing state spending a priority, hasn’t taken a position on who should pay for supply chain improvements in the state.
The Waterfront Coalition views cargo taxes as unworkable. The group argues that such tariffs would run afoul of World Trade Organization rules against trade barriers, as well as the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against nonfederal entities levying taxes on international or national commerce. The legality of cargo tariffs “would be litigated for years,” coalition executive director Robin Lanier said in a statement.
The group said it is not averse to helping pick up some of the cargo transportation tab, in addition to the millions of dollars importers already pay in merchandise processing, Customs and other fees.
“We do understand infrastructure is expensive,” the coalition wrote Schwarzenegger, noting business wants transportation priorities identified by a panel of importers, exporters and state and government officials. The group asked the governor to spearhead such an effort.
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“We believe that cooperative efforts can go a long way toward dealing with the issues that have been created by the phenomenal growth in international commerce,” the coalition wrote. As a precedent, the group cited the success of the PierPass, a program started last month at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that seeks to have cargo processed during extended hours from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m.
PierPass was spawned in response to last year’s port backups. Other steps, like increasing manpower on the docks, appear to have staved off a repeat this season.
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports combined are the largest port facility in the nation, processing an estimated 40 percent of all imported goods.
For the fashion industry, the ports last year handled about 88 percent of all apparel imported from Asia in terms of wholesale value, or $13.52 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.