Trump administration takes action to impose port tariffs on Chinese ships

Following earlier announcements and proposals to tackle China’s dominance in the maritime and shipbuilding sectors, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has laid out plans to introduce fees on Chinese ships calling American ports.

Amid the U.S.-China trade war, the Trump administration is taking another shot at reviving the American maritime and shipbuilding industry while curbing China’s dominance with two-phase targeted actions revealed on April 17.

According to the USTR statement, these actions are a response to the Section 301 Investigation of China’s Targeting of the Maritime, Logistics, and Shipbuilding Sectors for Dominance, which found that “China’s acts, policies and practices are unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce”.

“These responsive actions will disincentivize the use of Chinese shipping and Chinese-built ships, thereby providing leverage on China to change its acts, policies, and practices, and send a critically needed demand signal for U.S.-built ships,” the USTR claimed.

As explained, these actions will occur in two phases over “a reasonable period of time” to allow businesses to adjust. For the first 180 days, applicable fees will be set to zero.