Biden admin pushes for transport of U.S. ag exports

The U.S. Department of Agriculture made public a letter from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to vessel-operating common carriers, known as VOCCs. In the letter, the secretaries urged the world’s leading ocean carriers to help mitigate disruptions to agricultural shippers of U.S. exports and relieve supply chain disruptions created by the COVID-19 pandemic by restoring reciprocal treatment of imports and exports and improving service.

“In the spirit of fully utilizing our current infrastructure, we’re writing to emphasize the critical nature of service to underutilized West Coast ports to ensure American agricultural exports can be freely transported overseas,” Vilsack and Buttigieg said in the letter.

Ocean carriers have made fewer containers available for U.S. agricultural commodities, repeatedly changed return dates and charged unfair fees as the ocean carriers short-circuited the usual pathways and rushed containers back to be exported empty. The poor service and refusal to serve customers is exemplified by many ocean carriers suspending service to the Port of Oakland. DOT and USDA are calling on the carriers to more fully utilize available terminal capacity on the West Coast.

“Shippers of U.S. grown agricultural commodities and goods have seen reduced service, everchanging return dates, and unfair fees as containers have short-circuited the usual pathways and been rushed to be exported empty,” Vilsack and Buttigieg said in the letter.