US Imposes Slightly Eased Port Fees on Chinese Ships

Apr 22, 2025

By Ryan Hanrahan

Agri-Pulse’s Oliver Ward reported this past week that “starting in October, the U.S. will impose port fees on Chinese-made ships and Chinese operators based on cargo volumes, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said on Thursday. But ag exporters will see some relief as the measures will not apply to ships that arrive empty to transport U.S. commodities or to those on shorter routes.”

“The measures, USTR argues, will ‘disincentivize the use of Chinese shipping and Chinese-built ships, thereby providing leverage on China to change its acts, policies, and practices, and send a critically needed demand signal for U.S.-built ships,'” Ward reported. “The fees will be applied per U.S. voyage, the fact sheet says, and not at each U.S. port call, as had been initially proposed. The fees will also only be issued up to five times per year on any given ship.”

“Chinese-built ships on shipping routes to the U.S. from locations less than 2,000 nautical miles away, including from ports in the Great Lakes or Caribbean regions, will also be exempt, as will ships arriving to the U.S. from overseas U.S. territories,” Ward reported. “Agriculture producers had warned that the fees could impose particularly steep costs for bulk commodity exporters, given Chinese-made vessels make up more than half of all port calls from dry bulk carriers. But USTR provided some relief in the final measures by exempting Chinese-built ships that arrive to the U.S. empty to export bulk commodities.”

What are the Fees?

Reuters’ Jonathan Saul, Lisa Baertlein, David Lawder and Andrea Shalal reported that “instead of a flat individual fee on large vessels, the USTR instead opted to levy fees based on net tonnage or each container unloaded, as was called for by operators of small ships and transporters of heavy commodities such as iron ore.”

“From October 14, Chinese-built and owned ships will be charged $50 a net ton, a rate that will increase by $30 a year over the next three years,” Saul, Baertlein, Lawder and Shalal reported. “That will apply if the fee is higher than an alternative calculation method that charges $120 for each container discharged, rising to $250 after three years. Chinese-built ships owned by non-Chinese firms will be charged $18 a net ton, with annual fee increases of $5 over the same period.”

“It was not immediately clear how high the maximum fees would run for large container vessels, but the new rules give non-Chinese shipping companies a clear edge over operators such as China’s COSCO,” Saul, Baertlein, Lawder and Shalal reported. “The notice comes on the one-year anniversary of the launch of the USTR’s investigation into China’s maritime activities.”

Bloomberg’s Joe Deaux, Ruth Liao, and Weilun Soon reported that “ship operators can avoid the fees for up to three years if they can show that they’ve ordered a new US-built vessel.”

Ward reported that “some U.S. ag groups met Thursday’s announcement with a sigh of relief, noting that the uncertainty around what measures were coming had prompted overseas customers to delay purchases. U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers thanked ‘USTR for considering concerns and feedback from the agricultural community,’ they said in a statement.”

“‘This move means a lot to farmers and customers around the world,’ USW Chairman Clark Hamilton, said,” according to Ward’s reporting. “‘We want to thank them for their efforts to balance the need for action against these Chinese maritime practices with the potential for harm to our export competitiveness.'”

China Slams the New Fees

Deaux, Liao and Soon reported that “Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian slammed the actions at a daily press briefing in Beijing on Friday, saying they will hurt US consumers and businesses in addition to disrupting global supply chains, while also failing to revitalize the US shipbuilding industry. ‘Measures such as imposing port fees and levying tariffs on cargo-handling facilities hurts the US itself as well as others,’ Lin said.”

In addition, Reuters reported that “China’s shipbuilders on Saturday blasted as ‘short-sighted’ U.S. port fees announced by President Donald Trump’s administration on China-linked ships, a measure aimed at the nation’s shipbuilding industry.”

“The China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry expressed ‘extreme indignation and resolute opposition’ to the U.S measures, joining protests from the government and country’s shipowners,” Reuters reported. “‘The decline of the U.S. shipbuilding industry is the result of its protectionism and has nothing to do with China,’ the shipbuilders said in a statement.”

“It warned the U.S. restrictions would disrupt the global maritime system, lead to soaring shipping costs, further push up U.S. inflation and harm the interest of the U.S. people,” Reuters reported.

Source : illinois.edu

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”