|
 The Marine
Highway: A Road to Recovery
The U.S. Marine Transportation System (MTS) is an amazing collection of ocean,
costal, and inland waterways that efficiently and safely moves goods and people.
International trade is vital to our economy and the MTS proudly serves
importers, exporters, manufactures and agriculture producers by carrying 43.5
percent by value and 77.6 percent by weight of all U.S. international trade.
One component of the MTS that has yet to reach its potential is the Marine
Highway System. A vibrant network of freight ferries and container-on-barge
operations can help relieve congestion on certain highways, expand national
highway freight capacity and potentially reduce travel times. Heavily congested
routes along the coast and at border crossings can be served with marine
alternatives to keep freight moving and provide redundancy to critical
infrastructure.
The most significant impediment to the development of the Marine Highway system
is the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT). The HMT was enacted by Congress in the
Water Resources Development Act of 1986. This is an ad valorem tax meaning a tax
on the value of cargo.
Currently the HMT applies, with limited exceptions, to domestic and foreign
marine cargo unloaded at a U.S. port, including waterborne cargo arriving from
Canada. The HMT is not assessed on the harbor or port, nor is it assessed on the
vessel’s operator or owner. The tax is set on the value of the cargo, and is to
be paid by the shipper or importer of the cargo. Not subject to the HMT is
domestic highway freight and imported cargoes arriving in the U.S. by a land
border – highway, bridge or tunnel.
|
|
Now for the good news:
With the support of shippers, ports, maritime labor and vessel operators,
several legislative proposals are now before the 111th Congress that exempt
non-bulk marine cargo transported between U.S. ports and between Canadian ports
on the Great Lakes from the HMT.
The proposed legislation promises, at last, to remove the most significant
barrier to the development of a robust Marine Highway system in the United
States.
These bipartisan proposals are revenue neutral, meaning they will have a de
minims impact of the federal budget. The proposed legislation will not affect or
change the application of the HMT on cargo arriving from overseas – which is the
major source of tax receipts funding the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
The HMT exemption, when passed, will enable the expansion of the Marine Highway
– strengthening the domestic maritime industry, providing redundancy and
resiliency to our transportation network, benefiting trade and improving the
environment.
(note: This article appeared in its
entirety in the Marine Log, September 2009.)
|
