/Agencia Reuters
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators urged President Donald Trump to “stand firm” on the proposed trade measures to revive the United States’ naval industry. They also asked him to avoid any concessions during his upcoming meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Democratic Senators Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin) and Mark Kelly (Arizona), along with Republicans Tim Scott (South Carolina) and Todd Young (Indiana), told Trump in a letter sent Monday, May 11, that China’s decades-long effort to “decimate American shipbuilding” requires the use of U.S. trade measures to their fullest extent.
During their meeting in South Korea in October, Trump and Xi agreed to suspend for one year the exchange of punitive tariffs on their respective vessels, thus avoiding the payment of about $3.2 billion annually in fees for large Chinese-made ships sailing to U.S. ports. The U.S. levies will resume on November 10, unless a new extension is agreed upon.
The United States initially announced these port fees in April 2025 to help reduce China’s dominance in the global maritime industry, after a U.S. investigation concluded that China’s hegemony in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors was due to unfair practices.
Trump will meet with Xi in China on May 14 and 15 for a summit that will be marked by the war in Iran, a conflict that has further strained ties between Washington and Beijing. China remains the largest buyer of Iranian oil, despite pressure from the Trump administration.
“The United States is at a turning point and cannot cede any more ground to the People’s Republic of China. We urge you to stand firm during these negotiations as we work together to apply trade remedies and advance the Ships for America Act, in order to level the playing field,” the senators wrote in the letter.
The legislation, introduced last year in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, would provide tax credits for investments in shipyards and domestic production, authorizing $2.5 billion in funding over a decade for local shipbuilding projects, among other measures.
China’s share of the global maritime industry – valued at $150 billion – soared to over 50% in 2023, from about 5% in the year 2000, driven largely by government subsidies.
In contrast, U.S. shipbuilders, once dominant, have seen their market share fall below 1%. South Korea and Japan are the next largest shipbuilders.
“The threat of U.S. tariffs briefly caused a 25% drop in orders at Chinese shipyards last spring, although orders rebounded later that same year after the fees were postponed,” the senators wrote.
“The sudden decline in shipping orders in China demonstrates that when your administration acts on this issue, the global maritime industry pays attention,” the lawmakers said, calling the port fees “an urgent and critical step, necessary to strengthen the U.S. industrial base, expand the economy, and protect national security,” they emphasized.
