DETROIT – Want an example of a major scandal that has been almost completely under the radar? The Detroit office of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office has adopted a bizarre policy that is severely harming trade revenue in the state, and which has had devastating consequences for the Port of Monroe.
That policy is this: The vast major of international cargo these days is shipped in large containers – and the Detroit office of the CBP is now requiring those metal shipping containers to be X-rayed and scanned for security reasons before they can go out or come in.
But no port in Michigan has the equipment needed to do that – which means the state is effectively shut out of most international trade. This is a policy, according to Paul LaMarre III, the director of the Port of Monroe, being leveled only against Michigan.
“What to me is most clear is that this should be a non-political, non-partisan regulatory issue,” said Mr. LaMarre, who took over as leader of the Monroe port in 2012 after years as manager of maritime affairs for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.
“And this is a clear abuse of regulatory authority,” he added.
Mr. LaMarre, a 39-year-old former U.S. Navy pilot, has worked hard to expand the Port of Monroe since he took the job, with considerable success. Last year, a University of Michigan study found that the number of jobs created by the port tripled under his stewardship, going from 577 to 1,659, meaning millions for the local economy. But then came the decision to forbid containers.
That was bad for all 40 ports in the state, but worst of all for Monroe. Though it is less than an hour’s drive from Detroit, the port is technically outside the Detroit port’s customs jurisdiction, according to boundaries set by the Federal Register.
Since there is no customs unit assigned to Monroe, cargo inspection at the port has been provided by Detroit as a “courtesy if they have the manpower available.” For years, that wasn’t a problem.
But suddenly, whenever a key shipment of goods was about to go out of or come into Monroe, no manpower seems to be available.
“This has cost us (and the community) millions,” said Mr. LaMarre. What normally happens is that the cargo is either diverted to Toledo’s port, which is 14 miles from Monroe’s, or to Cleveland.
The authorities in charge of U.S. customs for Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin are based in Chicago – and have far more lenient rules than Michigan’s, which are the tightest in the nation.
Michigan’s customs rules are set by Christopher Perry, the CBP’s program manager in Detroit, who makes $166,218 a year. He has repeatedly refused multiple media requests to explain his policy, and has reportedly said vague things about security needs.
But no cargo has been prevented from going out or coming in – it is just being sent or received via different ports, hurting Michigan’s economy and in some cases adding costs to the consumer.
The University of Michigan conducted a major study of the effects of these policies last year, in which researchers looked at the impact of two glaring examples. In one case, Ford Motor Co. wanted to ship new Mustang cars from Monroe to Hamburg, Germany.
- This would have meant revenues for the port and saved money for the automaker. But just weeks before the first 100 care were to be shipped, Detroit customs informed Ford that they would be unable to guarantee that an agent would show up to inspect the containers, and the project collapsed.
- Another major project involved the shipment of huge amounts of machinery to the Port of Monroe that would be trucked to Grayling, where Arauco is erecting a particle board factory. Initially the project was approved – but the Detroit office of the CBP announced it would deny entry just before the first ship arrived. The ship was diverted to Cleveland. Mr. LaMarre then got a barge and a tug and brought that shipment to Monroe, but the rest were canceled.
“They keep moving the target, but we are still developing new markets and doing our best to stay competitive,” he said.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Ambassador Bridge Co. and its infamous owner, 92-year-old Matty Moroun, may have successfully influenced Chris Perry, the head of the Detroit customs office to try to blunt his competition.
“Chris Perry has said multiple times that his top priority is the Ambassador Bridge, the 10,000 trucks that go over it every day, and nothing else,” Mr. LaMarre said.
Shockingly, the Detroit Customs and Border Patrol even seems to be engaged in vindictive retaliation against one of the Monroe port’s biggest defenders, Gregg Ward, owner of the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry. Several months ago, the CBP sent teams with a slow mobile X-Ray unit to his ferry, which takes trucks carrying hazardous material across the Detroit River every day.
“They are inspecting, with a slow mobile X-Ray unit, 100 percent of our vehicles,” delaying transit and losing him business,” Mr. Ward said. “It is pure harassment. “At the Ambassador Bridge they X-Ray no car traffic going to Canada and less than 10 percent of commercial vehicles entering the United States.
“Yes. They are trying to put him out of business. Gregg Ward is one of the finest and most honest men I know,” said Mr. LaMarre.
What is clear is this: Monroe, and the state of Michigan, are losing millions because of a seemingly senseless and arbitrary customs rule that exists in no other state.
And nobody in government has satisfactorily explained why.
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