Statement from WCIT President Lori Otto Punke urging Congressional passage of Infrastructure Bill
Seattle, WA, October 1, 2021 – The pandemic-related global trade and international commerce challenges are coming into sharp and frightening focus. Our nation’s ports face bottlenecks of cargo ships, impacting our supply chains and complicating trucking and railway transport. This has resulted in skyrocketing shipping costs and slower movement of finished products and essential parts, hurting businesses with production and supply and hitting consumers with higher prices and less selection. These seemingly temporary issues may represent a new reality unless we act.
One crucial way to address this challenge is through smart investments in our infrastructure. Expanding our ports and improving our roads, bridges and rail lines will not only help increase capacity to import and export Washington state goods, but will also give us greater flexibility to adapt to unexpected fluctuations in shipping traffic and trade patterns. That is why it is so critically important for Congress to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as soon as possible. This bi-partisan supported legislation will help Washington state make the important strategic investments to our roads, ports and railways that can help diminish the impact of supply chain challenges on our businesses, farmers and consumers.
With 40 percent of our jobs tied to international commerce, Washington state is the most trade reliant state in the country. We need to fund improvements to our critical infrastructure to help make trade more reliable and predictable so that it continues to benefit our regional economy and our communities. These investments can only be possible if Congress passes the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
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ABOUT WASHINGTON COUNCIL ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE On behalf of our members – manufacturers, farmers, retailers, service providers and non-profits – the Washington Council on International Trade advocates for pro-trade policies and investments that benefit Washington’s workers and employers. Trade paves the way for Washington-made goods and services to reach foreign markets, provides Washingtonians with products that raise our quality of life, and sustains family-wage jobs in numerous local industries. To learn more, visit us at https://www.wcit.org