US-China trade tensions: Beijing rolls back ‘special port fees’ on US vessels for one year
The United States and China have begun rolling back trade actions, after the Busan meeting ended with “a great success.”Beijing recently suspended the export ban on ‘dual use’ materials while US reduced the fentanyl related duties from 20% to 10%.China also suspended the ‘special port fees’ on US vessels. The transport ministry announced that from 13:01 (05:01 GMT) on Monday, “special port fees” will no longer apply to ships that are either operated by or constructed in the United States when they call at Chinese ports. The decision will remain in place for one year and comes “simultaneously” with Washington’s decision to pause its own port charges on Chinese-built and operated vessels.This marks another step in the gradual rollback of tariff actions that escalated over several months, during which duties reached triple-digit levels. Those penalties stalled trade between the world’s two biggest economies and disrupted global supply routes. The current easing follows a meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in South Korea last month, where both sides agreed to retract some punitive measures.The rivalry over commercial influence has also brought attention to global shipbuilding trends. The United States, once dominant in the years following the Second World War, now produces only 0.1% of the world’s commercial ships. Asian shipyards lead the industry, with China constructing nearly half of the vessels launched globally, followed by South Korea and Japan.In a parallel development, Beijing confirmed the suspension of sanctions placed on several US subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean, one of South Korea’s largest shipbuilders. The one-year suspension, effective from 10 November, corresponds with the US decision to halt port fees on ships connected to China, according to a separate statement released by China’s commerce ministry.“In light of this (US suspension)… China has decided to suspend the relevant measures” for one year, the ministry said, as cited by AFP.China introduced those sanctions in October, accusing the subsidiaries of supporting a US government “Section 301” investigation that labelled China’s dominance in the shipbuilding sector as unreasonable. The sanctions prohibited organisations and individuals in China from working with Hanwha Shipping LLC, Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc., Hanwha Ocean USA International LLC, Hanwha Shipping Holdings LLC and HS USA Holdings Corp.A planned investigation into whether that Section 301 probe affected the “security and development interests” of China’s shipbuilding industry and supply chain has also been halted for one year, according to the transport ministry.These latest suspensions form part of a wider sequence of reciprocal steps taken after the Xi–Trump discussions. On Wednesday, Beijing said it would extend the one-year suspension of additional tariffs on US goods, keeping them at 10%, while also dropping some tariffs on soybeans and other agricultural imports from the United States.In the past week, China has also stopped enforcing an export ban on gallium, germanium and antimony, metals considered crucial for modern technologies. It additionally paused a one-year restriction on rare earths technology exports. The Chinese commerce ministry said Washington, for its part, agreed to suspend its export restrictions on affiliates of blacklisted foreign companies where those entities hold a stake of at least 50%.
