The United States announces the results of its Section 301 investigation or imposes tariffs or port call fees on Chinese-made vessels
Last April, the Biden administration launched a Section 301 investigation into China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the United States Trade Representative to investigate alleged "unreasonable or unfair trade practices" in other countries and recommend unilateral sanctions to the president after the investigation. Recently, Reuters quoted sources as saying that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has completed an investigation report on the matter, which is expected to be released before President Biden leaves office.
Data show that China's share of the $150 billion global shipbuilding industry has expanded from around 5 percent in 2000 to more than 50 percent in 2023, while the share of once-dominant U.S. shipbuilders has fallen to less than 1 percent. After China, the two shipbuilding giants are South Korea and Japan, both in Asia.
In response to the findings, Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), said he found the USTR report's conclusions compelling. He pointed out that the United States is too dependent on China and lacks emergency production capacity and adequate shipbuilding capacity, which is completely unacceptable for a superpower. The United Steelworkers (USW) is one of five unions petitioning to initiate the Section 301 investigation.
In fact, over the past four years, the Biden administration has largely continued the Trump-era tariff policies, adding new tariffs and imposing a series of export controls to reduce China's dominance. Just last month, the USTR also launched a Section 301 investigation into China's mature process chip industry.
There seems to be a rare agreement between Democrats and Republicans about the plight of the US shipbuilding industry. Trump said in an interview last week that the U.S. shipbuilding industry was losing out to China and that the United States might have to let Allies build the naval vessels it needs for the U.S. military. And his National security adviser to the president-elect, Mike Waltz, has also been concerned about the problems of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, and has co-drafted the "American Ships Act" with the House of Representatives, aimed at helping the U.S. shipbuilding industry to narrow the gap with China.
However, many shipping experts pointed out that before the development of China's shipbuilding industry, the United States shipbuilding industry has been robbed by Japanese and South Korean companies to the vast majority of the market share, and the shipbuilding industry of the United States and China has not had direct competition. The shrinking U.S. shipbuilding industry is also the result of multiple factors, including the hollowing out of shipyards and construction capacity, fewer Marine engineers and skilled workers, and declining global competitiveness.
China has repeatedly expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the Section 301 investigation launched by the United States. The spokesperson of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Ministry of Commerce successively issued a statement on this matter, pointing out that the US application is full of false accusations and misinterprets normal trade and investment activities as harming US national security and corporate interests, which lacks factual basis and goes against economic common sense.
China urges the US to respect the facts and multilateral rules, immediately stop its wrong practices and return to the rules-based multilateral trading system. China will closely follow the progress of the investigation and will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its own rights and interests.
Data show that China's share of the $150 billion global shipbuilding industry has expanded from around 5 percent in 2000 to more than 50 percent in 2023, while the share of once-dominant U.S. shipbuilders has fallen to less than 1 percent. After China, the two shipbuilding giants are South Korea and Japan, both in Asia.
In response to the findings, Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), said he found the USTR report's conclusions compelling. He pointed out that the United States is too dependent on China and lacks emergency production capacity and adequate shipbuilding capacity, which is completely unacceptable for a superpower. The United Steelworkers (USW) is one of five unions petitioning to initiate the Section 301 investigation.
In fact, over the past four years, the Biden administration has largely continued the Trump-era tariff policies, adding new tariffs and imposing a series of export controls to reduce China's dominance. Just last month, the USTR also launched a Section 301 investigation into China's mature process chip industry.
There seems to be a rare agreement between Democrats and Republicans about the plight of the US shipbuilding industry. Trump said in an interview last week that the U.S. shipbuilding industry was losing out to China and that the United States might have to let Allies build the naval vessels it needs for the U.S. military. And his National security adviser to the president-elect, Mike Waltz, has also been concerned about the problems of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, and has co-drafted the "American Ships Act" with the House of Representatives, aimed at helping the U.S. shipbuilding industry to narrow the gap with China.
However, many shipping experts pointed out that before the development of China's shipbuilding industry, the United States shipbuilding industry has been robbed by Japanese and South Korean companies to the vast majority of the market share, and the shipbuilding industry of the United States and China has not had direct competition. The shrinking U.S. shipbuilding industry is also the result of multiple factors, including the hollowing out of shipyards and construction capacity, fewer Marine engineers and skilled workers, and declining global competitiveness.
China has repeatedly expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the Section 301 investigation launched by the United States. The spokesperson of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Ministry of Commerce successively issued a statement on this matter, pointing out that the US application is full of false accusations and misinterprets normal trade and investment activities as harming US national security and corporate interests, which lacks factual basis and goes against economic common sense.
China urges the US to respect the facts and multilateral rules, immediately stop its wrong practices and return to the rules-based multilateral trading system. China will closely follow the progress of the investigation and will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its own rights and interests.
