For more than 100 years, Alaska has relied on the Puget Sound area to provide goods and services to the 49th state. From early gold rush pioneers who bought and transported their supplies from Seattle, to Alaska's automobile dealers who fill their lots with cars shipped from Washington by barge, Puget Sound has always been a supply pipeline for those living on the Last Frontier.
Just as Alaska benefits from the services provided by this area of Washington state, so do the cities that surround Puget Sound. In economically tough times, it was the Alaska market that helped to keep the doors open at many Puget Sound companies and helped to keep people working. And as Puget Sound's fifth largest trading partner for all merchandise goods exports except aerospace, Alaska continues to play a viable and vital part in the growth and sustainability of Puget Sound's economy.
Still, as with any relationship, there have been occasional rifts. The trading partners don't always see eye-to eye on some issues, most especially drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). And political issues and personalities tend to color some of the issues that arise. Yet even as these differences of opinion and policy can become contentious, both sides still work toward finding common ground, and in turn, continuing what has been a positive trading relationship for more than a century.
EXPORTS TO ALASKA KEY TO PUGET SOUND ECONOMY
In 1985, the Alaska Committees of the Chambers of Commerce of Tacoma and Seattle commissioned a study to analyze trade patterns between Alaska and the Puget Sound region. This study, titled Ties that Bind, was also supported by the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma and private business firms with operations in Puget Sound and Alaska.
Updated in 1994 and 2003, the study showed what thousands of Puget Sound and Alaska businesses already knew-trade between the two regions …
