USSEC has joined with the American Soybean Association (ASA) and more than 90 other fellow farm and food organizations, by calling on representatives on both sides of the labor dispute impacting operations at five west coast ports to come to the bargaining table and resolve the issue that threatens the supply chain continuity for U.S. agricultural commodities.  This dispute has caused congestion, delays, and uncertainty in addition to costing the agriculture industry millions of dollars each week that the negotiations and slowdowns continue.
In an open letter, USSEC and its fellow organizations urged both the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) to consider the impact the dispute is having on consumers and to resolve their differences as quickly as possible.  The groups also urged the federal government to take into account all available remedies to bring the dispute to a rapid end, noting the potentially dire consequences of not reaching an agreement that gets each port back up and running quickly.
“This regrettable situation is having a severe impact on our ability to export agricultural and food products to many of our main export markets,” wrote the groups in the letter.  “Inevitably, these overseas customers will look to other sources for their supply of these goods.  Similar to what we encountered after ill-advised export embargoes in the past, once lost, a foreign customer can be difficult to recapture.”
Please read the entire letter by clicking here.