<\/p>\n
The US has announced a new proposal to impose port fees on foreign ships as part of its shipbuilding revival project, prompting renewed concerns among shipowners about inflation and market distortions.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 13, the White House unveiled \u201cAmerica\u2019s Maritime Action Plan\u201d that includes a \u201cuniversal infrastructure or security fee\u201d on commercial ships built in foreign countries, which will be contributed to \u201cMaritime Security Trust Fund\u201d to support US shipbuilding and other maritime projects.<\/p>\n
Without detailing the fee structure, the White House stated this proposal could involve a fee of 1 cent per kilogram on foreign-built ships, yielding roughly $66 billion in revenue over 10 years, or a fee of 25 cents per kilogram, yielding close to $1.5 trillion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs foreign-built vessels benefit from U.S. market access, this policy ensures they contribute to the long-term revitalization of America\u2019s maritime capabilities,\u201d according to the plan.<\/p>\n
The International Chamber of Shipping, representing over 80% of the world\u2019s merchant fleet via national shipowners\u2019 organization, said it would support US plans to strengthen maritime capacities but oppose any proposed port fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe imposition of fees \u2026 would represent a substantial additional cost burden on maritime transport,\u201d the ICS said in a statement Feb. 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch measures risk distorting trade, increasing costs for U.S. consumers and businesses, disrupting the smooth flow of global commerce, and could encourage retaliatory measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new proposal came after Washington and Beijing were threatening to impose port fees on each other\u2019s tonnage before agreeing to a one-year truce as part of a broader US-China trade agreement last November.<\/p>\n
The trade tensions caused short-term spikes in China-bound freight rates and many industry groups, such as American Petroleum Institute, lobbied heavily against the fees as they believed such schemes would lead to high logistics costs for US commodity and energy exporters as well container shippers.<\/p>\n
Maritime revival<\/strong><\/p>\n The Maritime Action Plan also includes policy proposals to revive the US shipbuilding capacity, with the White House noting only eight shipyards exist in the country that can build vessels greater than 400 feet in length.<\/p>\n The White House also plans to introduce deregulatory measures, strengthen the maritime industrial base, and create a Strategic Commercial Fleet of US-built ships for the country\u2019s military and commercial logistics on international routes.<\/p>\n The action plan involves many proposals requiring budgetary approval and the White House said it will compile a legislative package as part of fiscal year 2027 budget for Congress approval.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration urges Congress to enact this package in tandem with existing legislative vehicles, ensuring the US maritime industry is equipped to meet the demands of global competition, national defense and economic growth,\u201d according to the plan. <\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" … ships as part of its shipbuilding<\/span> revival project, prompting renewed … Fund\u00e2\u0080\u009d to support US shipbuilding<\/span> and other maritime projects. … . The International Chamber of Shipping<\/span>, representing over 80% of … spikes in China-bound freight<\/span> rates and many industry …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Source: Platts<\/a> <\/p>\n