Guam seeks relief from California container fee

Mirroring recent moves by Hawaii and Alaska officials, a member of Guam's legislature is seeking an exemption to a proposed California statewide container fee for cargo moving headed to the U.S. territory from California. 

Sen. Jim Espaldon, a member of Guam's 15-member legislature, has requested that Guam Gov. Felix Camacho, Guam's U.S. Congressional Delegate Madeleine Bordallo, and the Guam Chamber of Commerce push for the exemption with California officials.

Espaldon claims that the new California fee, which if signed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would impose a $30-per-TEU fee on all containers moving through the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland, would add close to $4 million a year annually to the cost of goods shipped to Guam. The vast majority of Guam's cargo is received in ocean-borne containers.

The California container fee bill, authored by State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, passed a final state legislature vote earlier this week and now awaits Schwarzenegger's signature. The governor has indicated he supports the bill and is expected to sign it if it reaches his desk.

The container fee is projected to generate $400 million to $500 million annually to be split evenly between goods movement infrastructure and air quality projects throughout California. Under terms of the bill, the per-TEU container fee would be borne by beneficial cargo owners.

Two weeks ago, the full congressional delegations from Alaska and Hawaii requested that Jones Act trade between the two states and California be exempted from the fee.

Writing to Schwarzenegger, the four members of Hawaii's congressional delegation and three members of Alaska's congressional delegation called the fee burden of great consequence to our hard-working constituents.

The delegations said that if the California container fee is enacted it would cost Hawaiian citizens $34 million a year in additional shipping costs and Alaskans $1.4 million per year. 

Because both states receive most of their goods via ocean shipping, the letter said, citizens of the two states could have no choice but to pay the increased costs of shipping fees. The two delegations ask Schwarzenegger to amend the container fee bill to provide an exculpation for vessels engaged in commerce between U.S. ports.

Ocean cargo between California and the two non-contiguous states?7,000 containers a year to Alaska and 1.13 million containers a year to Hawaii's handled almost exclusively by ocean carriers Matson Navigation and Horizon Lines.