President Donald Trump aims to restore U.S. maritime dominance with a Wednesday executive order promoting domestic shipbuilding in direct response to China ascendant position in the industry globally and a mounting trade war between the two superpowers.
[RELATED: Jared Golden Urges Crackdown on Chinese Ship Manufacturing and Investments in the U.S…]
“The commercial shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce of the United States has been weakened by decades of Government neglect, leading to the decline of a once strong industrial base while simultaneously empowering our adversaries and eroding the United States’ national security,” said President Trump in his executive order.
The order cites troubling data showing that the U.S. currently produces less than one percent of the world’s commercial ships, while China produces a staggering 50 percent. The massive disparity is all the more concerning in light of a 2015 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policy requiring all Chinese commercial vessels to meet certain military specifications so they can be commandeered in case of a war.
Trump’s order vows to secure “consistent, predictable, and durable” federal funding for the U.S. shipbuilding industry, aimed at rebuilding U.S. maritime manufacturing capacity, and at training and retaining maritime production workers.
Mainers working at shipyards such as Bath Iron Works or the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard could directly benefit from the President’s new initiative.
The Department of Defense (DOD), along with other federal agencies, will provide an assessment to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on what can be done to strengthen the Maritime Industrial Base for both commercial and military ship production.
Trump also ordered an investigation into the CCP’s efforts to dominate the maritime industry and unfair practices, and authorized the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to take action against China based on the findings, including tariffs on Chinese-made cargo handling equipment.
Under the order, international shippers will no longer be able to circumvent U.S. harbor fees by landing cargo in Mexico or Canada, and transporting it over U.S. land borders. It requires all foreign-origin cargo arriving by ship to pass through a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspection, even if it arrives in Canada by ship and crosses the land border into the U.S. The CBP will then charge and collect all applicable fees.
The Secretary of Commerce is ordered to establish “Maritime Prosperity Zones” in some U.S. coastal areas, which will incentivize investment in shipbuilding. The order does not specify where these zones will be, but Maine appears to fit the criteria.
These measures, among other efforts instituted by the order, seem to align closely with a request made by Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) to the USTR at the end of March, urging the U.S. to crack down on the CCP’s maritime practices and reinvigorate the U.S. shipbuilding industry.
“While China has poured hundreds of billions of dollars of state funding into its shipbuilding industry to insulate it from market forces, too many U.S. shipyards were forced to close their doors or compete for the few remaining contracts. As a result, the U.S. Navy estimates China’s shipbuilding capacity at roughly 232 times that of the United States,” wrote Rep. Golden in his letter last month.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="37833 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=37833">2 Comments
After Susan Collins and Anus King voted against Hegseth , both voted to impeach Trump, and Janet Mills is such a classic stupid bitch , Sorry to say this , but I’m not expecting a whole lot of new activity down at B.I.W.
These idiots are going to learn that what goes around comes around , and Maine will be penalized for their rabid partisan stupidity . We will reap what these fools have sown .
<I>”China had about 172,000 civilian ships at the end of last year. More than 11,000 were dedicated to inshore transportation operations and around 2,600 performed ocean transportation, statistics from the Ministry of Transport show.”</i>
OK — make it 11,000 and 3,000 which is 14,000. OK, where about the other 158,000 ships?
Knowing what I do about Chinese accounting, I wonder how many of those are still afloat, and how many are in the mud somewhere. (But still on the books as a working ship.
China is a threat, but not as much as some think.