Why aren't our state's elected officials doing more to promote and enhance the single-largest economic driver of our state's economy?

A recent report from the Washington Council on International Trade and the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle found that 40 percent of all jobs in Washington are tied to trade. But rather than focusing on initiatives to make our state more internationally competitive, state and local leaders are supporting a number of policies with the opposite impact.

The recently concluded regular legislative session featured proposals to tax trade and increase taxes on marine terminal operators who are competing with Canada and other states for cargo; as the state Legislature continues in special session, there are still specific proposals to tax imports and exports, providing shippers and manufacturers incentive to use ports outside of the state. This is bad news for Southwest Washington, where the ports of Vancouver, Longview and Kalama depend on discretionary cargo that could easily be shipped from other states or Canada if Washington removes incentives for trade. The Port of Vancouver alone indirectly supports more than 15,000 jobs, and many businesses in the region have chosen to locate in Southwest Washington due to the ability to easily export or import goods.

Other states also choose to export their products through Washington ports because of our strategic position as a gateway to the international marketplace. The movement of goods and commodities in itself has become an industry for our state.

To continue that trend, we need to make the investments and policy decisions that will maintain our state's status as a desirable path to Asia for products of all kinds. Our status as a global gateway economy is particularly important for Southwest Washington, with over half of the region's $3.3 billion of goods exported to Asia Pacific countries. While other U.S. states and Canada already recognize that strengthening trade infrastructure is the key to attracting lucrative new industries, Washington is falling behind.
Port of Vancouver investment

Tax policies are just one way that our elected officials can impact our state's global competitiveness. Another area is investment in new freight capacity, where new capital is desperately needed to maintain our advantages. For example, the state's freight rail plan has identified $2 billion in project needs for Washington railroads. BNSF invests over $100 million per year in their infrastructure in Washington state, and as trade grows, so will that investment, leading to better freight and passenger rail service.

The Port of Vancouver's major investment in rail in partnership with BNSF is already paying off; as a result of the Port's rail infrastructure, Tesoro and Savage are planning to build a 120,000 to 280,000 barrel-a-day crude oil loading facility, which will bring jobs to our state. Washington's policymakers should remember this lesson when considering the investments our roads, bridges and rail desperately need.

Finally, our state's leaders need to maintain a regulatory system that is fair and predictable and promotes investment in trade and freight mobility. Regulations are meant to protect our communities, while aiding business development -- good regulatory systems simultaneously do both. Our current review process has worked for decades, so there is no need to change it and endure the consequences of regulatory overreach we have experienced in the past, which resulted in losses to our agricultural industry and a devastating decline in timber production. We can't and shouldn't let that happen again.

Fostering new public and private investment in growing and modernizing our ports and freight mobility system will benefit shippers and the industries that rely on them, growing our trade capacity and creating jobs in Southwest Washington. Canada's Gateways strategy is already yielding gains in cargo at the expense of our ports.

Our state has fared better than most during the economic downturn, thanks to our connection to the world's fastest-growing economies in Asia. But we can't take that success for granted. We must continue to invest and grow our strongest industry.

Eric Schinfeld of Seattle is president of the Washington Council on International Trade (http://wcit.org).
 

“We want to trade more, we want to sell more, we want to buy more and we want more of our people to come to Shenzhen and we want more of your people to come to California,' Gov. Jerry Brown said in April, capping a weeklong trade mission to China with a stop in Shenzhen, Southern China's financial center.

Trade with the U.S. is likely a topic of discussion when President Barack Obama meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a private estate in southern California starting today. U.S. relations with China are important to states, many of which have seen exports to China triple and, in some cases, quadruple in the last 10 years. Worldwide, China was America's third-largest export market in 2012, behind only Canada and Mexico.

Inslee spoke before a receptive and internationally oriented audience at the annual dinner of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center on the Seattle waterfront.

“There is no more important issue in job creation,” Inslee said about international trade. “I’m going to do everything I can, to use the levers of Washington state government to continue growth in trade."

Washington state has an illustrious history of ties with reform-era China. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping visited Seattle during his first trip to the U.S. after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic in 1979. Washington state boasts the nation’s highest rate of exports per capita to the Middle Kingdom. But the export rate, which is heavily inflated by Boeing’s massive volume of exports to China, masks a darker truth — Washington may be falling behind in the race to capitalize on the benefits of China’s economic rise. 

SEATTLE, May 30, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of business, labor and agriculture leaders from across the state is encouraging Gov. Jay Inslee to make sure that Washington is "open for business" in every part of the state. The group delivered a letter to the Governor following his announcement on streamlining the regulatory process and providing incentives for Boeing to manufacture the 777x to ensure jobs and economic benefits for the state.  The coalition is calling for the same pro-business stance to extend to other projects, including outside of the largest population centers, like the three proposed bulk exporter facilities in the Northwest, two of which are under review by the Department of Ecology. These facilities would create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for communities.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130418/SF97740LOGO)

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/30/5458518/is-washington-state-open-for-business.html#storylink=cpy

Senator Cantwell visited a Pasco potato processing plant Wednesday morning to show her commitment to getting the Senate Farm Bill passed.

The current farm bill expires in September and she wants a long-term bill to make it through Congress that would give farmers and researchers the support they need to increase exports and food studies.

Potatoes are Washington state's third largest export and provide 23,000 jobs, including hundreds at the Allied Potato Northwest plant in Pasco.

Cantwell says the potato market is just one example of how Washington's agriculture industry is one of the most important priorities in our state's economy.

"As much as people talk about airplanes and software, it is the key industry of our state. To have a farm bill that helps predictability and certainty is going to be very important to our economy in the central part of our state," said Sen. Cantwell.

The long-term Farm Bill includes support for a market access program that helped the Pasco potato plant expand its exports to the growing potato market in Asia.

Cantwell also visited an ag research lab in Wapato Wednesday afternoon.

She will return to Washington D.C. next week to urge the Senate to pass the Farm Bil

With roughly three-quarters of B.C.'s $16 billion in annual south-bound exports dependent on the Interstate 5, business and transport unions are anxious about the economic losses incurred since the Skagit River bridge buckled and collapsed after being struck by an Alberta trucker May 23.

With traffic heavy and 40-minute delays reported at the border, Washington state has announced its quick fix to replace the bridge won’t be ready for three weeks.

That delay doesn’t sit well with the approximately 70,000 vehicles travelling the I-5 each day from Canada

Truckers carrying everything from lumber to electronics, said the efforts are going too slowly.

By Rob Hotakainen

McClatchy Washington bureau

Cherries such as these from the orchard at Hayden Farms north of Pasco are a popular export with South Koreans.
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Mark Harrison / The Seattle Times, 2012

Cherries such as these from the orchard at Hayden Farms north of Pasco are a popular export with South Koreans.
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WASHINGTON — More than a year after it took effect, a highly touted trade deal with South Korea has failed to produce as expected for the U.S.: Exports are down, imports are up and the trade deficit with the Asian economic powerhouse has ballooned.

In Washington state, where global trade is now linked to two of every five jobs, trade backers are happy: Exports of aircraft and parts to Korea rose by more than 75 percent last year, and Koreans are gobbling up more of the state’s prized cherries and apples.

Franklin County potato farmer Randy Mullen said it could make transportation less expensive for some Washington crops, including grain, to be shipped overseas.

And anything that makes transportation more affordable helps increase the competitiveness of Washington's agricultural products, said Mullen, owner of Mullen Farms Inc.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/05/22/2405066/rail-system-fixes-will-benefit.html#storylink=cpy