PORT GETS RELIEF FROM TARIFF
Cranes the Port of Virginia were planning to import from China were removed from the Trump administration’s tariff list, saving the port millions.
The Port of Virginia can breathe a little easier.
Cranes the authority plan to import from China at the beginning of next year were removed this week from a long list of goods and commodities on which the Trump administration will impose new tariffs. The port avoided having to pay about $10 million more for the equipment. Each of the four cranes on order from Shanghaibased ZPMC costs roughly $14 million.
“By buying four cranes at that higher price, you’d be paying for five and only getting four,” said Kurt Nagle, president and CEO of the American Association of Port Authorities, a trade association that represents 140 seaports.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a list Monday of approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports that will be subjected to the new tariffs.
That list included thousands of goods and commodities.
Other items removed included smartwatches, Bluetooth devices, bicycle helmets, car seats and playpens, the office said.
The reduction came after a lengthy comment and testimony period in which businesses and organizations, including John Reinhart, Virginia Port Authority’s CEO and executive director, pleaded to have certain items removed. Reinhart mentioned that no one in the United States manufactures the ship-to-shore cranes that are a “critical” part of a $320 million expansion at Virginia International Gateway in its final stages.
Nagle added he worries the tariffs could reduce volume at the ports.
If the price of TVs imported from China goes up by 25 percent, for example, fewer consumers may want to buy that product.