The Trump government has opened a broad new front in its global trade conflict and proposes to confirm levies with $ 1.5 million on Chinese ships arriving in American ports.
Such reimbursements would even apply to ships made elsewhere if they are managed by carriers whose fleets include Chinese ships – an approach that runs the risk of increasing costs on a series of imported load, from raw materials to factory goods.
Given their potential to increase consumer prices, the taxes could clash with President Trump's promises to attack inflation. Almost 80 percent of American foreign trade per weight is transported per ship, but according to Gival Research, less than 2 percent are worn on American flagships.
As detailed on Friday by the office of the American trade representative, the proposal reflects the credo “America First” that animates the Trump administration. It is designed to discourage the dependence on Chinese ships when supplying Americans of products, while it strives to stimulate the revival of a domestic shipbuilding industry after half a century of real peace.
Together with the vast rates of Mr Trump, the approach to shipping was a reprimand of the trading system built by the United States and its allies after the Second World War. Believe in the vision of the world if a crawling market has given way to hostility to globalization in favor of the pursuit of self -supply.
The proposal would promote the mission to isolate China and reduce American dependence on its industry – a rare area of two -part consensus in Washington. The plan was the result of an investigation, started during the Biden administration, into the dominance of the Chinese shipping industry, in response to a petition by trade unions.
Almost a fifth of the container ships arriving in American ports made in China, and a much higher share in commercial jobs on the Pacific Ocean, according to ING, the Dutch bank giant.
“A significant part of the import that enters the US via ports would be directly subject to hefty fines,” concluded the bank's researchers in a report published on Monday. “These extra costs would probably be passed on from the carrier to shippers and ultimately to importers and exporters.”
The administration plays comments on the proposal until 24 March. Mr Trump could then impose the taxes in executive order.
The plan proposes a series of reimbursements about ships that unload in American ports, depending on the percentage of Chinese ships in the fleet of a carrier. In addition to the rate of a maximum of $ 1.5 million for ships in Chinese, the levies of $ 1 million per port application for carriers outlines, whose orders for new ships attract Chinese shipping yards.
Large airlines usually stop at two or three American ports per route, which means that their taxes can exceed $ 3 million on traveling by $ 10 million to $ 15 million in income, estimated Ryan Petersen, Chief Executive of Flexport, a global logistics company.
“The proposed reimbursements are huge, and they will be rolled into some shippers, and therefore consumers,” said Willy Shih, an international trading expert at the Harvard Business School. “It is a really aggressive move that reflects an administration that has no contact with how the world really works or does not care and wants to cause chaos.”
Outhaval can fit in with Mr Trump's designs, who has tried to put pressure on companies to make their products in the United States. But increased shipping costs can hinder that effort, given that more than a fourth of the American import components, parts or raw materials are, according to data from the World Bank. Higher costs on such a load challenge the economy of making end products in the United States.
Trump's proposal is intended to combat the dominance of the Chinese shipbuilding industry, which, according to the office of the American trade representative, is more than half of the commercial cargo of the world than half of the commercial cargo of the world.
At least 15 percent of American exports should be sent on American flagships within seven years of the new policy, and 5 percent of the fleets should be built in the United States.
“There is no physical way in hell that American shipyards can do that,” said Lars Jensen, Chief Executive of Vespucci Maritime, a consultancy for container shipment based in Copenhagen. “The technical term for this proposal would just be 'stupid'.”
Waiting for a new container ship from an existing shipyard has been extending for more than three years, he said. An American industry would start almost all over again and require billions of dollars and many years.
The effort would also require steel – a raw material that is made more expensive by Mr Trump's rates.
In the meantime, the taxes would create new opportunities for established shipyards in South Korea and Japan.
If determined, the proposal would clamber and sow extra uncertainty for companies that are already struggling with the various tariff proposals from Mr Trump.
Importers would most likely reduce their use of American ports by sending to Mexico and Canada, and then using trucks and rails to deliver to the United States.
“Those ports are often overloaded,” noted Mr Petersen, the Flexport Chief Executive. “They will not be able to absorb a lot of capacity.”