The maritime industry has become the newest battleground in the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, with both countries imposing reciprocal port fees on each other’s vessels starting Tuesday.
The U.S. move, announced earlier this year, targets China-linked ships in an effort to weaken Beijing’s dominance in global shipping and bolster U.S. shipbuilding. The fees, expected to cost shipping firms around $3.2 billion in 2026, will hit Chinese state-owned carrier COSCO hardest.
China swiftly retaliated, announcing that starting Tuesday its Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) would begin collecting special port fees on U.S.-owned, operated, built, or flagged vessels. The measure targets ships whose owning entities have U.S. persons holding 25% or more of equity, voting rights, or board seats, which could potentially impact international owners listed in the States.
In a last-minute adjustment, Beijing exempted Chinese-built ships and empty vessels entering shipyards for repair, potentially softening the market impact. Jefferies analysts estimate that the Chinese fees will affect around 13% of crude tankers and 11% of container ships in the global fleet. According to Poten, U.S.-owned or -operated VLCCs could face charges of approximately $6 million per port call in China.
This tit-for-tat symmetry locks both economies into “a spiral of maritime taxation that risks distorting global freight flows,” Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers wrote in a recent report.
