Trade conflict
USA and China impose new fees on shipping
The back and forth in the trade conflict between the USA and China continues. Now Beijing wants to impose new fees on certain cargo ships. The US government had already announced something similar.
The USA and China want to impose new port fees on cargo ships from today. This means that the trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies is expanding to include shipping, after US President Donald threatened new tariffs on Friday.
China said it would impose special levies on ships owned, operated, built or flagged by the US. At the same time, the government in Beijing made it clear that ships built in China would be exempt from the taxes. As state broadcaster CCTV reported, the exceptions also apply to empty ships that enter Chinese shipyards for repairs.
On Friday, Trump announced additional tariffs against China of 100 percent starting in November at the latest. The reason for this was Beijing’s previous announcement that it would impose stricter controls on the export of technologies related to rare earths. The tone between the two countries then became noticeably more tense.
Trump submitted
Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced plans to impose fees on ships with ties to China in an effort to reduce that country’s influence on the global shipping industry and strengthen US shipbuilding. According to the Reuters news agency, the USA also wants to impose the new fees from today.
According to analyst Omar Nokta from the analysis firm Jefferies, 13 percent of the global oil tanker fleet and eleven percent of container ships are affected. Experts expect Chinese container shipping company Cosco to be the hardest hit, bearing almost half of the $3.2 billion expected in 2026 in U.S. charges.
