North American unions ask Biden administration to probe Chinese shipbuilding, impose port fees
- The petitioners are urging the US president to impose port fees on Chinese-built vessels to ‘address hundreds of billions of dollars of unfair government support’
- They also raised national security concerns about Chinese government-supported software platform Logink, which provides data on global supply chain logistics
The United Steelworkers and other North American unions on Tuesday formally called on US President Joe Biden’s administration to initiate a probe into China’s “unreasonable and discriminatory” practices in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sector.
Accusing the Chinese government of pouring in billion of dollars into the shipbuilding industry and forcing domestic steel producer to provide raw material at low prices, the petition filed with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office urged “all appropriate and feasible action to obtain the elimination of China’s practices”.
Four other unions, including the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, joined the United Steelworkers – a trade union representing more than a million North American members, mostly in the US – in making the request.
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The petition was filed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a statute that former president Donald Trump used in 2018 to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese imports worth billions of dollars a year. USTR has been reviewing Trump-era duties since May 2022.
Citing evidence of various forms of alleged Chinese government support for its shipbuilding industry, the petition also asks USTR to impose docking fees on Chinese vessels in US ports.
The petition said these fees should “address not only the hundreds of billions of dollars of unfair government support documented in this petition and discovered in the course of USTR’s investigation, but also to offset the other unreasonable, discriminatory, and unfair acts, practices, and policies documented in this petition”.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai has 45 days to determine whether she will pursue an investigation of Chinese shipbuilding.