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Nearly 40 years ago, officials with the Port of Kobe, Japan invited the ports of Seattle and Rotterdam to form sister port relationships. Both ports accepted at once. The 1967 sister port agreement between Kobe and Seattle was the first such affiliation between a Japanese and a U.S. port.
A decade later, the ports of Seattle and Shanghai entered into a friendship agreement, the first between a Chinese and U.S. port. Today, the Port of Seattle has sister or friendship port relationships with 11 different ports on three continents. The difference between sister and friendship ports is in name only.
Sister and friendship port agreements provide opportunities for information sharing on port operations, management, construction, and technology through bi-annual conferences, trade delegation visits, or informal contacts. The results benefit everyone in terms of new ideas, business contacts, cultural understanding, and international trade promotion.
Successful trade depends on strong relationships. In the end, trade isn’t conducted between nations, cities, companies or ports; it’s conducted between people. Sister and friendship port relationships provide a strong foundation for individuals within ports – and within their broader communities – to connect with one another. They add a sense of humanity and accessibility to large organizations that are often separated by language and thousands of miles.
When a company in Asia or Europe is looking for a way to transport its products more efficiently into the United States, or when a U.S. producer is looking for a trade contact in other nations, contacts established through sister port relationships can help open the door.
Beyond the benefits of communicating on topics such as development of containerization, security, economic development, and trade promotion, the relationships promote cooperation and mutual assistance. For example, when the Hashin Earthquake struck Kobe in 1995, the Port of Seattle participated in a port restoration symposium in Kobe and other relief efforts.