Minimally Chinese and minimally American. This is roughly how one could describe the desired profile of merchant ships that Washington and Beijing want, loaded with goods (from oil to New Year’s toys) to dock from now one in the ports of the US, and China: from Los Angeles to Rizhao (on the photo).
Expensive game of “ramps” to the unwanted shipping of the other, two leading economies of the world is conducted from October 14th in the arena of their tense tariffs—trade confrontation, initiated on April 2 in Washington, and wholeheartedly accepted in Beijing two days later. That “battle” continues today, despite US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s assurances that the latest round of negotiations between the US and China in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is “very constructive”.
Because the signals that the American-Chinese “maritime ramps” could last, unfortunately, are already there. Despite the fact that, by introducing significantly higher port fees to “undesirables”, they are already endangering the ongoing business of at least 13 percent of petro-tankers, and 11 percent of all container ships.
Namely, that the World Sea could become a lasting arena for the duel between the USA and China, one could think, even after yesterday’s statement by the US Ambassador to Japan, George Glass, during the Forum “Dialogue on Mount Fuji” in Tokyo.
“This is a very difficult neighbourhood. The US and Japan and our partners face determined and dangerous adversaries, who will do whatever it takes to undermine our alliance and weaken our regional partnerships.” By the way, last week, the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing warned Washington that China is “ready to go all the way” in the customs duel with the USA.
How then should the leading global maritime trade carriers, and other players in the business of import and export of agricultural raw materials, energy, and industrial goods navigate on the East-West route and vice versa? The answer is uncertain, while the losses of waiting time at the pier, clients on the other side of the world, trust, rising expenses for each sailing… are already growing greatly.
By the way, the powerful Greek maritime lobby recognized the unhappy scenario of this trade drama on the World Sea last year.
In the letter “The American threat of new port taxes for ships built in China could backfire” (https://www.ft.com/content/4ea1aa20-0623-4eda-bd5a-ba40c7aaa23c) Dionysios Tsilloris, a member of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers in Greece, reminded that the US occupies “the most prominent global position on the export markets of agricultural products such as corn, soybeans and soybean flour, as well as non-agricultural products such as steam coke and petroleum coke”.
Should the new (at the time still hypothetical) US port taxes on Chinese-built ships mean that only non-Chinese ships carry the said cargo to the US, Tsilloris asked, arguing that such a step would “limit the available tonnage and increase the cost of exporting US marine cargo, which would further encourage Chinese importers to buy goods from alternative suppliers such as Brazil”. Tsilloris’ letter was published on May 5, 2024. Look where we are now.
