Maritime labor seeks tax reform to promote short sea shipping

Print | Close Window

Maritime labor seeks tax reform to promote short sea shipping

In a recent letter to the chairman and the ranking Republican of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. seagoing unions, including American Maritime Officers, sought support for reform of the Internal Revenue Code in the interest of promoting the development of new short sea shipping service in U.S. domestic waters.

The unions requested that the tax code be amended "to exempt the waterborne transportation of cargo between American ports from the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT)."

The unions noted "the HMT is imposed on cargo entering a U.S. port from an overseas market, and then, if that cargo were to be transferred to another vessel, HMT would be assessed again on the same cargo when it moves by water along our coasts to other American ports.

"This application of the HMT, which results in the dual or multiple taxation of waterborne cargo, does not apply to cargo moving domestically by truck or rail" and "discourages the transportation of domestic cargo by water and impedes the development of a U.S. short sea shipping and marine highway system and should be eliminated," they said.

"The utilization of commercial vessels for the carriage of cargo along our coasts will be a cost-effective, efficient and environmentally sound way to supplement and complement the rail and truck traffic that has already pushed to capacity the highway and rail lines in most major transportation corridors. A short sea shipping transportation network will offer shippers another means to transport the ever-increasing volumes of imported cargo expected to move in interstate commerce between American ports in the coming years. Most importantly, moving this cargo by ship will not add to the congestion that plagues our nation's surface transportation systems."

The unions cited legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD). "His bill, H.R. 1499, would exempt from the HMT the movement of intermodal cargo by vessel between ports on the coasts of the United States, and would also exempt such movements between ports on the Great Lakes."