Support grows for USTR to slap U.S. port fees on Chinese-built ships

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U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) are seeing growing support for their push for the Biden Administration to initiate an investigation into the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) unfair trade practices in commercial shipbuilding. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) have now joined Baldwin and Casey’s push in support of the United Steelworkers (USW) petition under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that calls on United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai to initiate a full investigation into the PRC’s unfair trade practices in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors.

The 137-page USTR petition provides a detailed breakdown of the non-market practices used the Peoples Republic of China to build up its shipyards and dominate world shipbuilding as part of a wider plan to dominate world trade.

The petition calls for action by the USTR that “should include the assessment of a port fee on Chinese-built ships that dock at a U.S. port, the creation of a Shipbuilding Revitalization Fund to help the domestic industry and its workers compete, and other measures to stimulate demand for, and the capacity to construct, commercial vessels built in the United States.”

In March, Senators Baldwin and Casey joined USW and other labor leaders for a press conference in support of the American shipbuilding industry and to call on Trade Representative Tai to conduct a full investigation. Other unions joining the USW in filing the USTR trade petition include the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO.

“Our trade laws should level the playing field when foreign competitors like China cheat and put our companies and workers at risk. The administration needs to take action, including an independent investigation and imposing tariffs, to protect America’s maritime and shipbuilding industry from dependence on foreign supply, prevent further loss of good-paying American jobs, and strengthen our national security,” said Senator Brown.

“China’s push to dominate the global shipbuilding market over the past two decades has drastically tilted the playing field against the United States’ industrial base and American workers,” said Senator Fetterman. “My position is clear: there are consequences for targeting American jobs and foreign nations must be held accountable for undermining our manufacturing capacity. I urge USTR to launch this investigation and fully support USW’s proposed solutions to rebalance the scale and revitalize shipbuilding in the United States.”

The senators note that over the last 20 years, the United States has lost industrial shipbuilding capacity while the PRC’s subsidized shipbuilding has only grown. Chinese state-owned enterprises and other facilities in the PRC are now capable of producing over 1,000 ocean-going vessels a year, while the United States currently produces fewer than ten. While shipbuilding capacity, suppliers, and shipyards remain vital to the U.S. economy and national security, the PRC’s uncompetitive trade practices have led to 25,000 domestic shipbuilding suppliers leaving the U.S. market over the past 20 years.

• The full letter the senators sent today in support of the USW’s petition is available HERE