And today we spoke to a customs broker about one of the main issues that Mottley raised.
That's the proposed US levy on Chinese-built cargo ships. This port fee plan would charge operators between $500,000 and $1 million dollars per US port call if they have Chinese-made vessels in their fleet, regardless of the ship size.
Customs Broker, Delroy Fairweather, says this will likely double container shipping costs - which its bad, but not as bad as COVID:
Delroy Fairweather, Customs Broker
"With this, $1.5 million, we, I refer to it as a landing fee, that they would be levying on Chinese vessels which would enter the US domestic, which would enter the US market."
"That rate of that $1.5 million, would work out to a significant increase in fees. Not so significant during Covid because, remember, Covid had test us, to the limit where freight went up at least 500%."
"But I'm thinking that the, the, the studies that they're looking at right now, it may be about maybe half that amount."
Jules Vasquez
"So right now we're paying, let's say, $4,000 for that container. Under Covid, those charges went up to 18 or $20,000."
Delroy Fairweather, Customs Broker
"Yeah, yeah, because we could recall those numbers. Indeed."
Jules Vasquez
"But in this scenario, we're looking at it going up to likely it could go up to $8,000."
Delroy Fairweather, Customs Broker
"Yeah. Like, double double the price. But again, you know, we haven't heard anything insofar as what would be the, the actual cost. We're just looking at what's what's been said on the global market and kind of trying to brace ourselves for it now."
Jules Vasquez
"We know that when charges increase, either the importer eats it or that importer passes it on to the wholesalers and retailers. In most cases, we know it's up us. It's going to be, it's a it's going to be based on definitely. No doubt."
"So what effect do you see this happening? Do you see this having?"
Delroy Fairweather, Customs Broker
"You know, I think Covid had really tested us as consumers to see how much we could have dealt with in terms of prices, you know, when prices skyrocketed. Again, I would just say, smart shopping, you know, buy what you actually need as opposed to what you actually want, but you cannot run from the fact that it will definitely create some type of inflation."
"So it's another, price gouging type effect we will be looking at, and again, like you said, in the grand scheme of things, Belize being at the tail end will definitely feel the effect of it."
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