By Lisa Baertlein and David Lawder
Mar 25. 2025
President Donald Trump’s plan to revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding industry is likely to backfire because it relies on proposed fees on China-linked vessels that will hurt domestic ship operators, seaports, exporters and jobs, industry executives said at U.S. Trade Representative hearings on Monday.
At issue are proposed, stacking fees on China-built vessels that could top $3 million per U.S. port call. The Trump administration says the fees would curb China’s growing commercial and military dominance on the high seas and promote domestically built vessels. U.S. steelworker unions, U.S. steel producers and Democratic lawmakers support the effort, saying it will boost domestic industry.
But the idea has sent a shockwave through the domestic maritime industry because it threatens the survival of the same shipping companies and customers that would drive demand for orders from the U.S. shipyards Trump wants to rebuild.
Continue reading at www.reuters.com
Trump’s plan for port fees on Chinese-made ships won’t save US shipyards
By Imran Khalid
Apr. 6. 2025
Global supply chains, strained by pandemic disruptions and geopolitical tensions, face a self-inflicted wound with the US Trade Representative’s proposal to impose punitive fees on Chinese-built ships calling at US ports.
What seems to be another volley in America’s economic confrontation with China – an indirect attempt to revive the long-declining US shipbuilding industry – is, on closer inspection, a dangerously myopic policy.
The proposed penalties, which could reach US$1.5 million per port call, threaten to disrupt shipping networks while increasing costs for American businesses and consumers, as well as potentially weakening US trading influence. The consequences would hit far beyond the specified targets.
China currently dominates global shipbuilding. As much as 81 per cent of the world’s container vessels and 75 per cent of bulk carriers were built in Chinese shipyards – a staggering increase from a mere 5 per cent of the shipbuilding market in 1999.
Continue reading at www.scmp.com
US could face trade ‘apocalypse’ if Trump port fee plan isn’t killed
Mar 11, 2025
The supply chain disruption in the US was historically severe during the pandemic. It might be even worse if the Trump administration goes forward with its proposed port fee plan targeting Chinese ships and non-Chinese operators of Chinese ships, according to feedback submitted to the USTR
TARIFFS are bad enough — just look at the US stock market — but business leaders are warning of catastrophe if the Trump administration’s port fee plan goes forward.
The US Trade Representative announced on February 21 that it plans to levy exorbitant port fees — in some cases over a million dollars — for every US port call by Chinese transport operators, Chinese-built ships, all operators that have any ships on order at Chinese yards, and according to one interpretation of the proposal (based on a presidential draft order obtained by Lloyd’s List), all operators with any Chinese-built ships in their fleets.
The USTR plan would also mandate that a portion of US exports be carried on US-flagged and, eventually, US-built vessels.
Continue reading at www.lloydslist.com
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