Steven E. Rand, president and chief executive of Amports, said his company employs about 400 people at the port - and roughly half of them are directly tied to working with Chrysler vehicle exports. His workers handle about 350,000 cars a year through the port, most of them Chryslers, he said.
"There are literally hundreds of jobs created because of Chrysler's business in Baltimore and the fact that Chrysler has found a global economy" to market its cars, Rand told the crowd.
James J. White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, said in an interview that the impact of Chrysler on the port is high: about one-third of the 600,000 total vehicles that come through the port are Chryslers. Nationwide, Baltimore is the top port for vehicle exports and second only to New York in terms of both import and export of automobiles.
White said the weaker dollar last year helped foreign buyers purchase American goods, helping the port of Baltimore have its best year in its 302-year history, he said. White said that Toyota and Honda, two Japanese automakers that have plants in the United States, used Baltimore's port to export about 40,000 cars to overseas destinations last year.
White said he expects that economic troubles in Europe could mean a slowdown at the port, which directly employs more than 16,000 people. The agency couldn't take a position on the Big Three bailout proposal but would support measures that are good for the port, he said.
"Our focus is just on increasing cargo flowing over our docks," White said. "Import, export ... anything that's going to create a job through international trade is what we're all about."
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Democrat and senior member of the House's transportation and infrastructure committee, also spoke about the importance of helping the Big Three automakers survive. "We take things for granted until we lose them, and then we're sorry," Cummings said. "We cannot afford to lose one more job. Not one more."
But Cummings also noted that he wanted to hold the Big Three accountable if they received a bailout, saying the American taxpayer has a "right to know" specific details about how they plan to succeed if they accept the funding and that top auto executives should "feel blessed" to still have jobs at these companies.
"We must be a country that demands accountability," Cummings said.
