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The Brookings Institution said the federal government should step in to help big U.S. ports implement a coordinated policy to address port congestion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Brookings says that 85 percent of U.S. imports and exports move through only 25 port complexes, resulting in traffic and other delays that make transporting goods more costly.
The researchers say legislators regard ports as local infrastructure rather than national assets — and allocate resources accordingly. This ignores the fact that congestion at ports can affect farmers and other shippers 1,000 miles away, according to Adie Tomer, an associate fellow with Brookings and co-author of the study.
"The federal government really needs to have a
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national freight policy that helps everyone gets their goods to market, domestic or international," Tomer said.
The Brookings report calls for targeted investments by the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to the ports most in need of infrastructure improvements. Customs, border protection and transportation links between ports and major metro areas are among the categories that need smarter spending, Brookings says. The analysts advise using targeted funding rather than continuing the current trend of spreading resources evenly across ports and other infrastructure.
For more of the Wall Street Journal story: www.wsj.com
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