4 | American Association of Port Authorities
Although America’s ports are dynamic, vi-
brant centers of trade and commerce, they
rely on federal and private partnerships.
U.S. seaports and their private-sector busi-
ness partners are investing more than $9 bil-
lion annually to maintain and improve their
freight- and passenger-handling infrastruc-
ture.
Unfortunately, the federal government
isn’t adequately matching this with concom-
itant investments in connecting land- and
water-side infrastructure to effectively han-
dle increasing cargo volumes.
This lack of federal foresight causes inef-
ficiencies in moving cargo to and from ports,
resulting in time delays, reduced interna-
tional competitiveness for U.S. exports and
increased prices and product shortages for
consumers.
Despite there being a federal Harbor
Maintenance Tax (HMT) on seaport cargo
that raises 100 percent of the revenue needed
for maintaining America’s harbors and chan-
Kurt Nagle
