Money.
Whether counted in dollars, euros, or yen, money ““ and
much of the goods it buys ““ is not confined by national
boundaries. International trade, the economic component of what
many call “globalization,” is a major part of business
today, and many professionals expect its role to grow.
A lot of trade happens at ports. The ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach comprise the largest port complex in the United States;
the only larger ports in the world are located across the Pacific
Ocean at Hong Kong and Singapore. The Los Angeles/Long Beach
complex recently captured headlines not for its activity, but for
the lack of it when a labor dispute caused a ten-day shutdown. Many
experts saw the shutdown as a threat to the national economy.
Contract talks between shippers and dockworkers were frustrated
by disagreement on technology expected to enhance efficiency, but
at the expense of unionized jobs. Shippers closed all West Coast
ports until President Bush exercised rarely used authority under
the Taft-Hartley Act to order the ports back open on Oct. 9.
Shippers and dockworkers are currently in mediation, and on Nov.
1 they reached a tentative agreement on technology. The full impact
of the shutdown remains uncertain.
“Everybody’s waiting to see what’s going to
happen,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles
County Economic Development Corporation.
Under ordinary circumstances, ports are busy places. After
towering cranes unload ships, containers full of goods are reloaded
onto trains and trucks that haul everything from industrial
chemicals to the latest fashions to rail yards just east of
downtown Los Angeles or to Inland Empire warehouses.
“It’s a challenge but I wouldn’t call it
tough,” said Jim Flanagan, general manager for safety and
regulatory affairs at Maersk Sealand, a Danish shipping firm.
At the port complex, some of the major equipment that unloads
overseas products are imports themselves. Cranes at Maersk
Sealand-operated Pier 400, the world’s largest privately
owned container terminal, were designed by German engineers and
built in Abu Dhabi.
No matter which country products are imported from, trade at the
ports translates into money ““ stacks of it. According to U.S.
Dept. of Commerce figures, $212.5 billion in imports and exports
passed through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2001.
Though this was a decline from the previous year, the numbers
show trade at major American ports has steadily increased since the
mid-1980s.
The ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach are a “major
economic engine,” Kyser said.
To cope with the rising tide of imports, Los Angeles and Long
Beach worked together to build the Alameda Corridor, which
consolidated rail lines between the port complex and downtown rail
lines.
The corridor uses new bridges and a ten mile trench so train
tracks do not have to cross surface streets, easing traffic.
Combined with infrastructure improvements at the ports, like
Pier 400, the corridor is expected to aid efficiency as trade
increases.
“The ability to handle cargo will be greatly
enhanced,” said Joe Burton, general counsel for the Alameda
Corridor Transportation Authority.
All the cranes, warehouses, trucks and trains require thousands
of people to keep everything running. Figures cited by Kyser show
international trade employs over 440,000 people in Ventura, Los
Angeles, San Bernadino, and Riverside counties.
With reports from Jonathan Young, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.