Shipping and Cargo

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

The sequestration cuts will take a heavy toll on cross-border travel and trade, the Department of Homeland Security warns.

While security efforts remain the department's “highest priority,” furloughed workers will cause back-ups at the nation's ports of entry for both people and merchandise, the department said in a letter to trade and travel industry associations. The cuts take place against a backdrop of “significant growth” in travel and trade, with international air travel growing 12 percent over the past three years and maritime and air cargo shipments growing by 4 percent over the past year.

“We anticipate significant potential impacts to cross-border travel and trade. These negative impacts are going to increase as we enter peak travel seasons,” wrote Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection David Aguilar. “Given the importance of this commercial activity to the U.S. economy, CBP is very concerned about the ramifications of sequestration and we will endeavor to operate in a manner that is least disruptive to our mission and to your businesses.”

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) urged President Obama on Monday to take steps to stop monopolies in the freight rail industry.

“Farmers and businesses across Minnesota rely on freight rail to ship out their products, but a lack of competition in the rail industry harms shippers and drives up prices for their consumers,” Franken said Monday. “The freight rail monopolies that control much of our shipping infrastructure have harmed job creation and economic growth all over Minnesota and all over the country.”

U.S. imports are predicted to increased 8.5 percent over 2012 production after dockworkers and managers at East and Gulf Coast ports reached an agreement to avert a strike, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said Friday.

The forecast comes amid labor unrest at ports in South California that have already resulted in one work stoppage.

The Washington, D.C.-based NRF is predicting that 1.18 million containers, which hold the equivalent of twenty feet of material, will be brought into to the U.S. through ports in February. The group estimated that 1.34 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) were processed in January, which would be a 4.6 percent increase.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) sharply criticized the unions representing dockworkers at West Coast ports for voting against a proposed agreement on a new labor contract.

Sixteen Southern California affiliates of the AFL-CIO-affiliated International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union (ILWU) voted against the terms of a deal that was negotiated with the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association with the help of federal mediators this week.

The NRF said Friday that it was "extremely disappointed by this vote" and urged the two sides to get back to the negotiating table quickly.

"Ratification of a contract is needed to give retailers and other industries that rely on these ports the predictability they need to make long-term plans and get back to growing their businesses and creating jobs," NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a statement. 

Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Calif.) said it was important to protect "very good paying jobs" on docks across the country.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe told reporters that the switch, which would go into effect in August, is the cash-strapped agency’s latest step to adapt to how customers use the mail in an increasingly digital world.

Business leaders said a strike could have crippled the U.S. economy.

Federal mediators called in to resolve a labor dispute involving East and Gulf Coast ports said Thursday that dockworkers and management were making “progress” in their talks.

The statement, from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), comes at the conclusion of three days of negotiations between the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) and the AFL-CIO-affiliated International Longshoremen's Association (ILA).

The groups had nearly reached an impasse at the end of last year that would have resulted in a massive work stoppage that would have shut down 14 ports, to the dismay of business groups in Washington.

USMX and ILA agreed instead to resume talks under the supervision of the federal mediation service this month.