Bhubaneswar: Global trade runs on cargo vessels, from electronics, clothes, high-end machineries for factories, cars and many more. All these items mostly come on ships. About 90 percent of the world ‘s goods are transported by sea and most of those shops are made in China. The US’ s next target is the ship production industry of China. Donald Trump is after the ships built by China just like his push on trade and manufacturing. Trump wants to bring ship building back to America.
Trump is going to impose high-end taxes on Chinese made ships. Whenever they arrive on an American source they will have to pay something called port fees. This port fee is being hiked by Trump substantially. It is a bold move to tip scales of global trade. Though it is facing a strong push back. The original plan was quite ambitious as per Trump. According to the announcement by Trump, the original plan was a flat fee on Chinese ships. Upto 3.5 million dollars per ship and per visit was the hiked amount. The plan triggered panic across US industries l, as they depend on the ships to get their goods. The concerns of the American industries are obvious, higher taxes would lead to inflation. It would raise prices for all American consumers. Global shipping companies have also opined the same thing.
Washington has revised this original plan. Fees will be calculated on the basis of Cargo weight or the number of containers it is carrying. Instead of every arrival, the fee will be charged upto five times a year.
There is a way to avoid this all. The requirement for that is to order a ship from the American shipyard instead of Chinese ships. The exemption of this high fee will be applied then. China has criticised this.
China dominates the global shipbuilding industry. In the month of February, over 1000 ships were docked on US ports. Nearly 20 percent of all the arrival of ships in the US are built in China. Around ⅓ of all the vessels on the sea are made in Chinese shipyards. They produce most of the world ‘s shipping containers and also dominate crain production and shipping traffic. In the world China owns 7/ 10 busiest ports. So the Chinese ship industry cannot be avoided or ignored as it is too big and still expanding.
On the other hand, American shipyards are struggling to compete. It wants to fight back by targeting Chinese ships by imposing taxes. Experts are skeptical whether this plan would succeed. It will take at least 6-7 years for the Americans to launch a new ship. The time is longer than a single presidential term. Global trade will not stop until then. So Trump is targeting ship building for all the right reasons. He wants the US to catch up with China but his strategies may years to deliver and by then it may be too late.
-OdishaAge
