In late 2025, the U.S. Trade Representative made a decision that split the maritime industry: a one-year suspension of the new port fees on Chinese-linked vessels, just weeks after those fees had taken effect.
The background
The fees grew out of a Section 301 investigation into China’s state-backed shipbuilding dominance, a concern the entire American maritime community shares. The numbers behind that concern are stark. China accounted for more than half of all global ship orders by tonnage in 2025, a level of market concentration with real consequences for global trade and American security.
The fees targeted Chinese-owned and Chinese-operated ships, operators of Chinese-built vessels, and foreign-built vehicle carriers. But they also triggered retaliation. In just three weeks, reciprocal Chinese fees cost U.S. carrier Matson millions of dollars, a reminder that American operators can end up absorbing the collateral damage in a trade standoff. Following an agreement between the two governments, USTR suspended the fees for one year while negotiations continue.
Where TI stands
Transportation Institute submitted comments supporting the suspension. Our reasoning was straightforward: both the Jones Act fleet and the international U.S.-flag fleet are critical to the national and homeland security of the United States, and American operators need stability and certainty while a longer-term strategy takes shape.
Supporting the pause is not the same as stepping back from the underlying goal. TI has advocated for a strong American shipbuilding and shipping base since 1967, and we share the conviction, voiced by labor and industry alike, that decades of erosion in U.S. maritime capacity must be reversed. The question is how to get there without American carriers and mariners paying the price of retaliation along the way. A negotiated path that produces durable investment in U.S. shipyards will serve the industry better than a fee structure that invites tit-for-tat costs.
For more on the industry response to the suspension, read gCaptain’s coverage: https://gcaptain.com/industry-divided-on-ustrs-china-port-fee-suspension/