White House Wants Chinese Ships to Pay $1 Million for Every Port Call

Following a union complaint about unfair Chinese competition in shipping and shipbuilding, the Trump administration’s trade representative has proposed unprecedented access fees for Chinese-operated and Chinese-built ships – fees large enough to change the economics of container shipping in the U.S. market. 

China’s state-led shipbuilding sector dominates the global market for new tonnage, and China is the leading shipowning nation (by some metrics). Decades of preferential funding and government support have allowed Chinese shipyards to deliver useful tonnage at prices that other international competitor…