President Joe Biden has appointed a leading expert to tackle and hopefully solve the congestion problems facing US ports. It’s John Porcari, former secretary of the Department of Transportation during Barack Obama’s first presidential term of office.
Mr. Porcari will be part of a special task force led by the current Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, set up in June by Biden to address the supply-demand mismatches that have emerged in several sectors of the US economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The White House said Mr. Porcari will work closely with the US Department of Transportation and the National Economic Council. Disruptions in global shipping and rapid swings in demand have led the cost of shipping containers between China and the West Coast to rise by more than 90 per cent compared to 2019, with particularly heavy consequences for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together handle the largest share of containerized cargo transiting through US ports.
Mr. Porcari is to work directly with stakeholders to address the backlog and associated delivery delays and product shortages experienced by US consumers and businesses, the White House said.
Translation by Giles Foster