AAPA 10th Annual Planning for Shifting Trade Conference

Shifting international trade patterns create a complex scenario for urban, regional and transportation planners. In an era of trade policy uncertainty, vessel overcapacity, volatile ocean freight rates, and pressures to reduce costs at the same time that larger ships are seeking to call at America’s seaports, it’s forcing transportation planners to demand  higher capacity road and rail freight connections, deeper harbors, bigger cranes and sturdier berths. To address these issues, the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) – the unified and recognized voice of America's seaports – is holding its 10th annual Planning for Shifting Trade conference at the Marriott Tampa Waterside hotel, in Tampa, Fla., Feb. 2-3, 2017.  Hosted by Port Tampa Bay, the program is co-sponsored by AAPA and the Transportation Research Board (TRB), in partnership with the American Planning Association Florida Chapter and in cooperation with the U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd). “The 2017 Planning for Shifting Trade program began in Tampa in 2008 and is now one of AAPA’s best attended annual conferences,” said Jean Godwin, AAPA's executive vice president and general counsel. “It focuses on the recent changes and turbulence in today’s international trading environment, and provides a variety of expert viewpoints to examine the issues from different perspectives.”