The Kansas Farm Bureau president expressed skepticism Monday about the U.S. trade representative’s plan to impose U.S. docking fees of as much as $1.5 million on Chinese-built ships operating in international water to haul Kansas farm products to market or deliver key inputs for crop production.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer proposed the policy as part of President Donald Trump’s objective of diverting container ship construction from China to the United States.
The administration’s policy could impact Seaboard Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in Merriam, Kansas, that operated Seaboard Marine, a large international shipping carrier. Kansas farmers rely on global shipping to import fertilizer or seed and to export crops. In 2022, Kansas exported $7.2 billion in agricultural products.
“We support efforts to increase America’s competitiveness in shipbuilding, but the USTR’s existing plan would raise shipping costs, destroy jobs and make Kansas agricultural products less competitive in global markets,” said Joe Newland, president of Kansas Farm Bureau.
He said steps should be taken to make certain U.S.-owned shipping companies and their customers, which included the state’s farmers and ranchers, weren’t “caught in the crosshairs of misguided policy.”
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Kansas and a member of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, said the Trump administration’s blueprint for surging fees on American shipping companies would inflict damage on businesses and farmers, as well as threaten national security.
She said Trump administration’s proposed fee change could prove so costly that Seaboard’s marine division might be forced out of business.
“While I support strengthening America’s shipbuilding industry and the American workers employed by the sector, I am concerned that the proposed action, as currently written, will have unintended consequences that would be devastating for United States-owned international ocean carriers and employment at dozens of ports around the country,” Davids said.
Davids said industry experts warned the trade representative’s strategy could backfire by disrupting supply chains, driving up costs, narrowing options for U.S. exporters and providing Chinese companies with a competitive advantage.
She said the trade representative should amend proposed docking levies to protect U.S.-owned shipping companies while also encouraging growth of American shipbuilding.
The plan called for a service fee of up to $1 million for Chinese-owned operators of shipping vessels making a U.S. port of call. The fee could rise to $1.5 million for fleets containing Chinese-built vessels making a port of call.
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Story via Kansas Reflector
