KVRR
By Austin Erickson
Minnesota companies, agriculture and trade groups speak with Senator Amy Klobuchar about their issues with importing and exporting.
Klobuchar has introduced the Ocean Shipping Reform Act to make it more difficult for carriers to turn away goods at ports ready to ship them overseas.
The president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association is concerned seeds and seed coatings made overseas won’t make it in time for planting.
The CEO of the medical product company Medsource Labs, which is based in Chanhassen, is frustrated the price of shipping containers have increased up to $20,000 over last year.
He says warehousing costs have also risen 200 percent and the cost of exporting products has increased 475 percent.
“We’re seeing that containers that used to be a three-day delivery time are 90 to 120 days to get containers here. So, in order to make the goods, and to get the goods out, we’re looking for components to get in here and they’re delayed,” C. Todd Fagley said.
Trade experts say the overseas shipping industry is the least regulated in the world