Re: “Bipartisan bill gives WA farmers a fair shot in supply chain chaos” [April 10, Opinion]:
Price and wage controls never work. Ocean carriers need to be able to take advantage of the high ocean rates customers are willing to pay to move cargo from Asia to the U.S. West Coast. Forcing ocean carriers to divert empty containers to less lucrative shipping lanes is unfair to ocean carriers and will only hurt consumers with higher prices. U.S. companies that need products produced in Asia will find them increasingly difficult to get shipped.
We have pineapple products on the dock in the Philippines, for example, but no ship to move them to the U.S. U.S. companies that depend on pineapple are stuck. And nobody grows pineapples in the continental U.S.
Let the free market do its thing. The heavy hand of the federal government is never as smart as the decisions made by millions in a free market every single day. The Ocean Shipping Reform Act is a big mistake.
Thomas R. Greene, Bainbridge Island, president, Interpack Northwest Frozen Foods