U.S. Trade Representative to investigate unfair Chinese shipbuilding practices

United States Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai: “The petition presents serious and concerning allegations of the PRC’s longstanding efforts to dominate the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors." [Image: AAM]

United States Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai has taken up a petition that, among other remedies, seeks to see a port charge imposed on Chinese-built ships calling U.S. ports. As we reported earlier, the Section 301 petition, was filed with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) by five national labor unions and 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.

USTR will investigate acts, policies, and practices of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance.

“The petition presents serious and concerning allegations of the PRC’s longstanding efforts to dominate the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors, cataloguing the PRC’s use of unfair, non-market policies and practices to achieve those,” said Ambassador Thai. “The allegations reflect what we have already seen across other sectors, where the PRC utilizes a wide range of non-market policies and practices to undermine fair competition and dominate the market, both in China and globally. I pledge to undertake a full and thorough investigation into the unions’ concerns.”

WHITE HOUSE SUPPORT

The USTR decision to launch the Section 301 investigation has strong White House support. In a fact sheet released yesterday, the White House notes that the Biden Administration “recognizes growing concerns that unfair Chinese trade practices, including flooding the market with below-market-cost steel, are distorting the global shipbuilding market and eroding competition. These concerns were outlined in a petition to the U.S. Trade Representative from five labor unions requesting an investigation into Chinese acts, policies, and practices in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors.”

“President Biden believes it is critical to understand China’s uniquely aggressive set of interventions in these sectors, and to take actions that address distortions to the global market for commercial vessels, maritime shipping, and logistics that harm American workers and shipbuilders,” says the fact sheet.

MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE APPLAUDS INVESTIGATION

“The Biden administration is right to move ahead with an investigation into China’s predatory practices in its shipbuilding industry. I am also encouraged to hear that President Biden will call for tripling tariff rates on Chinese steel imports,” Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) president Scott Paul said in commenting on the USTR decision. “Because whether it is steel and aluminum or shipbuilding or any other industry, we know China’s government will do whatever it takes to dominate.”

“We stand with the United Steelworkers and other unions who filed this trade petition. In the coming weeks, the Alliance for American Manufacturing will visit shipbuilding communities across the country to learn how China’s unfair practices have harmed workers and communities. We’ll also seek to find out what these communities need to begin to make things right,” Paul said.

Recent AAM polling found:

• An overwhelming majority (82%) of U.S. adults agrees that China’s dominance of the global shipbuilding industry is concerning, with 32% saying it’s “very concerning.”
• The vast majority (76%) of U.S. adults think that the use of Chinese-built drydocks to repair, maintain and retrofit U.S. Navy vessels is a threat to U.S. national security.
• By far and away, most respondents (74%) support the U.S. government investing in the shipbuilding industry domestically, primarily to protect national security (72% support) and create more jobs (65% support).
• The bulk of respondents (73%) agrees that “it is a matter of national security that the United States maintain the capability to build the ships and vessels to serve our commercial and military needs.”
• A decisive majority (81%) agrees that it is important for the president to act to strengthen U.S. shipbuilding capabilities.