Port fees on Chinese ships could put some US exporters ‘out of business’
- USTR port fee plan could double freight rates for US containerised exports, erasing margins
- Trump’s US shipbuilding plan makes port fees more likely; draft executive order directs USTR to impose US port fees on China-built ships, as well as all ships of operators with any China-built ships in their fleets
- US agricultural exporters would suffer port fee fallout on top of retaliatory tariffs, which have already been imposed by China, with other countries likely to follow suit next month in response to Trump’s reciprocal tariffs
There is still widespread scepticism that the US will impose massive port fees on China-built vessels, on the premise that fallout would be too severe. But a draft executive order obtained by Lloyd’s List suggests the chances of this actually happening have just increased
