Now they should “fight fire” and impose fees built on Chinese in Chinese to finance subsidies for their own shipbuilders, said the new appointment of Donald Trump in the US naval regulator.
“We have to make up for the subsidies given by China with its shipbuilding, fighting the fire,” said Louis Sola, who was appointed President of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in January in January. “Where should that money [from fees on Chinese ships] go to? That money should be invested in US delivery. “
SOLA’s comments follow the recommendation of an American trade representative (Ustr) to impose measures, including fees up to $ 1.5 million to Chinese ships called US ports.
Trump’s administration is expected to make a final decision on the proposal, made after the investigation that started with former President Joe Biden, after a public debate in March.
As many as 36,595 US port calls in 2024 could influence Ustr measures, which could generate an annual revenue of a $ 52 billion fee, according to Clarksons Shipbroker researchers.
“I don’t want to take their Goliath and tie my legs together,” said FMC chair. “I’d rather put my own champion against him and the only way you can do is that you have to finance them.”
The proposal for imposing criminal measures to Chinese ships invoked in the US port is the latest effort to increase American competitiveness, a key goal for Trump. The US president said a joint congress session this month that he would create a “shipbuilding office” in the White House, along with tax incentives for the industry.
“In order to enhance our industrial defense base, we will also be resurrected by US shipbuilding, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” Trump said to the legislators.
American shipbuilders are very likely to approach Chinese rivals in the near future, however, experts said.
One of the leading shipbuilding countries, since March, has now secured only 0.2 percent of the global book on commercial orders in compensated gross tonnage, a scale of work taken for the construction of the ship. This is compared to 59 percent of China, according to Clarksons Research.
The FMC, which regulates the global shipping industry to protect the interests of American consumers, assisted the Ustro investigation of Chinese shipping ahead of the public debate on the proposal of compensation, Sola said. The probe was launched last year in response to US unions Calling to an investigation.
Sola claimed that even though they have now turned to cheaper subsidized production from Asia, the country “has resources, has objects, has people and has knowledge.”
He said that now they could “take a large percentage of” crane production that loads and unload ships in the port, for which “technology is not so complicated”.
The widespread presence of Chinese cranes in American ports of US authorities have carefully examined from the biden administration, in the middle concern to be able to control themselves at a distance.
Sola admitted that shipbuilding was a “much more complex animal”, but claimed that now it could “be a player on some smaller commercial vessels.”
FMC, whose lawyers and economists advise the government on legislation, a political independent government agency. But Sola, the FMC Commissioner since 2019, who has run for Congress as a Republican candidate, has previously publicly supported Trump.
Sola said that “with US first priorities of President Trump, US priorities, [the FMC was] Type there above, ”adding that he was looking for a larger budget so that the agency could hire more staff, despite the administration to reduce other government agencies.
“Instead of being for art or radio or something, it’s really easy to see and touch what FMC is doing,” Sola said. He said he wanted to increase the number by 30 percent, and that the FMC sought to accelerate the employment process for the best candidates from the limited base of American naval experts.
FMC is a relatively small US agency but its The POP of the case has already increased On the back of increasing concern about the relying of America to foreign shipowners.
Announcing the adoption of the legislation that expanded the powers of FMC to research and fine shipowners in 2022, Biden blamed the “foreign ownership carriers” for increasing prices that were “damaged by US families” during the Coid-19 pandemia.
Peter Sand, the main analyst on the search for the shipping of Xeneta, warned that the fees for Chinese shipping submitted by east “can cause large congestion and delays in the US”.
The proposal comes as new tariffs imposed by Trump administration, including steel and aluminum, and further levies for which it threatened is expected to increase import costs.
“The threat of even higher costs of importing goods to the US should be taken very seriously,” Sand said.
Additional reporting demetry of sevastopula
