Dear President Biden: 'please help us' – love, US exporters

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Some 76 agricultural and related-industry exporters have written to President Biden to urge the US administration to do more to solve the supply chain crisis. While noting positive steps by transport secretary Pete Buttigieg and the FMC, they added that further actions were required. They explained: “Carriers are increasingly declining or cancelling export cargo bookings, while frequent ship delays and cancellations with little or no notice to our exporters are delaying shipments by weeks or even months.

“The resulting inability of shippers to deliver their products on schedule affects the reliability of American exports, and subsequently decreases export values and market share. The cost to ship a container has increased between 300% and 500% in the past two years; US producers are losing 10-40% of their export value to these added costs; and an informal survey suggests that US agriculture exporters’ inability to perform is leading to a loss of 22% of their sales.”

They urged the president to take measures like: supporting new legislation including the controversial Ocean Shipping Reform Act; ordering the DoJ to review the existing act to see if any “enforcement tools” can be used; support efficiency initiatives at ports; and provide federal support for the deployment of port and national data-sharing portals.

You can read the whole letter and its full set of recommendations here.