The proposed actions by the US Trade Representative on foreign-built and foreign-flagged ships entering US ports has raised concerns among farmers. Fees up to $1.5 million on ships arriving at US ports, if the ships are Chinese, built, operated or flagged would hit us ag in the wallet. Mike Steenhoek is the Executive Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition and says the issue is with how the program would be implemented.

“This is not a complex mathematical exercise. This will easily price us out of much of the international marketplace, and so that’s the real concern, is that in the effort to try to promote a Made in America industry, US shipbuilding, they’re going to have negative consequences on other Made in America industries like agriculture and others.”

The American Soybean Association estimates vessels going from the Pacific Northwest to China would see a cost increase up to $12.29 a bushel on soybeans.

“Whenever you drop a significant cost on that those costs will get passed on to in our case, farmers and agriculture, you know, someone could say, well, just pass those costs on to your customers. If we tried to do that, what our customers would say is, today is an excellent day to buy more soybeans from Brazil or Argentina.”

Steenhoek is quick to point out that farmers are the ultimate Made in America constituency, but they could not withstand an economic blow like that.

“Things like barges and tow boats, dredges, those all have to be built in the United States. There’s a law that that stipulates that, it’s called the Jones Act, and we were so we’ve been long supportive of that. So we have this track record of supporting the domestic ship building industry. We think that certainly has room to improve over time, and we applaud the administration for pursuing that. Again, it’s all about the time horizon for execution and doing it in a way that doesn’t harm other made-in-America industries.”

Steenhoek says the reaction to the USTR proposal has been overwhelmingly negative.