If the main US business representatives continue to urge the American president to use the powers given to him by the Taft-Hartley Act to suspend the strike proclaimed by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) that Since the early hours of this morning it has blocked the activity in the East Coast and Gulf U.S. ports, and so they do also numerous members of the Republican Party, in the past few hours Joe Biden has reiterated that he does not intend to intervene to stop the strike because - he explained - "there is a collective bargaining and I don't believe in Taft-Hartley."

Among the representatives of the Republican Party who spoke for urge Biden to suspend the strike, in a letter sent today to the president, Sam Graves and Daniel Webster, respectively Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Infrastructure and member of the of the Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transport of the House of Representatives, highlighted that "the economic impacts of failure to take action to bring the parties back to the negotiating table will be far-reaching, leaving the American consumer to pay the highest price while The holidays are approaching». "Despite the requests from the parties involved and 69 Republican members of the Congress - denounced Graves and Webster - the administration Biden failed to seriously involve the parties in the attempt to reach a solution before the expiry of the strike. Continued inaction only exacerbates the damage economic situation for our nation, further burdening the wallets of American households".

Among the representatives of U.S. companies, the U.S. The Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation (NRF) have called on Biden to use the Taft-Hartley Act to block the strike. "The Americans," said Suzanne P. Clark, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a letter sent to Biden - in 2021 they experienced the resulting labor delays and lack of goods during the malfunctions of the pandemic-era supply chain. It would be reckless to allow that a contractual dispute inflicts such a shock on the our economy". Clark recalled that the ports involved "manage a total of more than 68% of all containerized exports and 56% of imports of the nation, for a daily trade value of over 2.1 billion dollars".

Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, representing the retail sector, said that "the NRF urges President Biden to use any authorities, including the use of Taft-Hartley Act, to immediately restore operations in all container ports involved, to bring the parties back to the table negotiations and to ensure that there are no further blockages. An interruption of this magnitude during this crucial moment of our nation's economic recovery," Shay added will have devastating consequences for American workers, for their families and for local communities. After more than two years of galloping inflationary pressures and in the midst of the recovered from Hurricane Helene, this strike will cause further difficulties for American families. The administration must prioritize our economy and to the millions of Americans who depend on it for their livelihood and well-being, and - concluded Shay - must Immediate action to prevent further difficulties and deeper economic consequences"

Meanwhile, speaking of the repercussions of the strike in the ports on Italian exports, Giampaolo Botta, general manager of the association of Genoese freight forwarders Spediporto, has highlighted that "exporters and freight forwarders look with extreme concern about the situation that from today will block the ports of the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The United States - Botta recalled - they are Italy's first trading partner outside Europe. With the strike, every week, it is estimated that a worldwide there will be about 500 thousand containers that do not they will be able to disembark or reach their final destinations. A damage very serious to the US economy, to its consumers, but also to the exporters, who will certainly see the cost of freight rates already in the coming weeks." Botta specified that even the Mediterranean ports will be severely affected by the risk, every week about 71,000 containers, in both directions, on the axis with the East Coast of the United States, the latter nation, which for the port of Genoa alone represents a Essential reference: the latest data available from Port System Authority, referring to 2022 - explained - they speak of 336 thousand containers handled between embarkation and disembarkation, a figure higher than that linked, for example, to all the European destinations.