Imbalance of trade

In both locations, and many more where growing volumes of inbound cargo are matched by higher and higher stacks of unused empties, the societies concerned have been content to dawdle a little when it comes to expanding infrastucture.

There is no real excitement in a typical post modern economy when a new terminal or rail line or road is mooted, except from adjacent property interests who normally take against any further expansion of facilities if it will impact upon their views, or their sense of fastness and comfort. This is why the minister of transport is one of the plum jobs in most Asian cabinets and one of the least visible in places like the United States.

In Britian the minister of shipping or transport tends to be an unimportant dweeb who is shuffled in and out of the post every few years.

So it goes. But there may be trouble ahead. The last time we traded this way with China, some centuries ago, they sucked the world’s silver supply into China by supplying the world with silk, tea and porcelain and buying very little in return.

Only opium was found to have the usp needed to promote the flow of commerce.

And all this delay, who is going to pay for the extra costs? In bills of lading, liability for delay is simply not accepted by anyone afloat even though these days the shipping line are almost unbelievably punctual in the way they get their shipments to outurn on time. Freight Forwarders and NVOCs as well as logistics companies will sometime put their hands up for extra costs arising out of delay, but usually only up to once or twice the value of the freight paid. So no bonanza there.

The truth is the cost of delays which arise out of the insufficiency of infrastructure and the unwillingness to build in the environment of modern towns and countryside are paid for by the community as a whole.