Global Container Shipping Disruptions, Pop-Up Ports, and U.S. Agricultural Exports
MILWAUKEE, Oct. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- New research published in Applied Economics Perspectives & Policy (AEPP) evaluates the economic impact of a cornerstone of the Biden administration's response to shipping disruptions on the U.S. West Coast. The USDA established the Commodity Container Assistance Program in 2022 to help cover additional logistical costs from shipping U.S.-grown commodities through the ports of Seattle, Tacoma, and Oakland. Using counterfactual estimation techniques that compare U.S. containerized agricultural shipments from ports that participated in the program with those that did not, the authors reveal that the program did little to foster U.S. agricultural exports. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed that the program incurred costs of $2.8 million, comprising $1.8 million in start-up and $1.0 million in per-container costs, between March and September 2022.
- Using counterfactual estimation techniques that compare U.S. containerized agricultural shipments from ports that participated in the program with those that did not, the authors reveal that the program did little to foster U.S. agricultural exports.
- In their new AEPP article " Global Container Shipping Disruptions, Pop-Up Ports, and U.S.
- Agricultural Exports ," Sandro Steinbach from North Dakota State University and Xiting Zhuang from the University of Connecticut examine how the Commodity Container Assistance Program shaped U.S. containerized agricultural exports from Western ports in 2022.
- During that period, average monthly containerized agricultural exports from participating ports were $18.6 million above the counterfactual level."