An Alaska lawmaker is calling for an exemption to cruise ships from having to call at a Canadian port en route to Alaska as the North American trade war heats up.
Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan wants an exemption as the trade war will ‘raise costs for Alaskans and hamper the state’s summer tourism season.’
However, if ships skip the mandatory stop in Canada it would also harm Alaska cruise tourism.
About 10% of Alaska’s cruise passenger traffic comes from Canada.
Sullivan wants Congress to pass a law allowing cruise ships to skip Canada port calls.
Cruise ships generally make stops in Vancouver or Victoria, BC to and from Alaska.
“It is a bit of a dangerous game,” Sullivan said. “Canada, you don’t want to mess with Alaska. If you do, we’re going to work hard on having our cruise ships bypass your ports, and that’ll help our economy tremendously, and it’ll really hurt their tourism.”
An exemption was allowed: previously after the pandemic when cruise tourism was still shut down in Canada.
