Two issues linked to our current global economic crisis are at the top of my list of challenges we face as we enter 2009: the emerging regulatory stranglehold on trade and commerce that could further damage our economy and hinder efforts for an economic recovery, and the increasingly inadequate condition of U.S. transportation infrastructure.
The first issue will have an immediate consequence, while the second will require an immediate commitment of resources to create a lasting, positive impact into the future.
A broad coalition of trade associations and business groups decried Customs’ lack of concern over the multitudinous burdens that the 10+2 rule will place on their businesses.
New Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations raise similar worries. Congress’s recent amendment to the Lacey Act succeeded in turning a can of soda pop into a product that potentially could be held responsible for illegal logging in the Amazon Rainforest.
Port congestion fees, clean-trucks fees, and state and local fees on containers all serve to weaken an already faltering flow of containers through West Coast ports, ports that create more than 125,000 jobs in California alone. How long can we survive law by rule of hysteria?
Steps must be taken now to commit resources to our crumbling infrastructure. We need only to turn our eyes southward to Mexico, where 6.5 percent of that country’s GDP will fund infrastructure next year. President Felipe Calderon’s belief is that Mexico “should look to increase spending on public infrastructure to be able to stimulate growth and employment.”
Meanwhile, Washington is spending billions of dollars on bailouts for banks and faltering industries, and to fund safety-net programs for the swelling ranks of the unemployed. The U.S. must also invest billions on infrastructure improvements to sustain a recovery caused by the various economic stimulus packages.
To quicken our economic recovery and guarantee its longevity, we must not lose our heads, and we must help prevent those around us from losing theirs.