8 | American Association of Port Authorities
a new water resources bill to authorize fund-
ing for future navigation improvement proj-
ects and provide more equity for “donors”
whose cargo owners pay more in HMT than
comes back in federal dollars.
However, these glimmers of hope are
overshadowed by an otherwise troubling pic-
ture of the federal government paying scant
attention to the needs of freight, freight mo-
bility and the connections freight needs to
access our seaports.
As we recover from the economic down-
turn, we must make investments today to ad-
dress the trade realities of the future. Ship
sizes continue to get larger, requiring on-go-
ing modernization of ports and federal navi-
gation channels, even for ports that don’t
require 50 feet of depth. Panama has rec-
ognized the need to modernize and has un-
derway a $5.25 billion expansion of its canal.
Canada (which recently signed the Canada-
Europe Trade Agreement that greatly ex-
pands access to overseas markets) and Mex-
ico (which anticipates investing $4.7 billion
in its port infrastructure by 2018) are two
other Western Hemisphere nations that are
