Saturday, October 24, 2026
The news that moves freight
Ocean Oct 24, 2026 · 7 min read

USTR proposes keeping China port fees suspended to 9 January 2027

The 10 November port fee restart is set to be called off. The cliff moves to January. On 23 October, USTR (the US Trade Representative) proposed keeping its port fees on China-linked ships suspended until 9 January 2027 (gCaptain). Comments close on 30 October. Our view: the November restart is effectively dead. The real risk now sits on January bookings. When the fees last ran in autumn 2025, Chinese-owned ships paid $50 per net ton (FreightWaves). COSCO faced an estimated $1.5bn a year in US charges (gCaptain). Our prediction: USTR makes the pause final before 10 November, and no material fees are collected on November calls.

The November port fee cliff is gone on paper. Plan for the one in January.

On 23 October, the US Trade Representative (USTR) proposed keeping its port fees on China-linked ships suspended for two more months, to 9 January 2027. Without the move, the current pause would run out on 9 November, and fees would restart on 10 November (gCaptain).

The notice was filed with the Federal Register on 23 October and is scheduled for publication on 26 October (Federal Register). Public comments are due by 5 p.m. ET on 30 October under docket USTR-2026-0694 (gCaptain). It is a proposal, not a final decision.

Our view: the 10 November restart is effectively dead. A formal proposal one week before a comment deadline, matched to a truce both governments have already announced, is not a trial balloon. But the risk has not gone away. It has moved to January, right into the busiest booking weeks before Lunar New Year. Forwarders should stop planning around November and start planning around 10 January.

What USTR has proposed

The pause covers the fees from USTR’s Section 301 case against China’s shipbuilding and maritime sector. Section 301 is the US trade law that lets the government act against foreign practices it judges unfair. The fees fall on Chinese-owned, Chinese-operated and Chinese-built vessels, plus some foreign-built vehicle carriers. The pause would also keep on hold certain duties on ship-to-shore cranes and cargo-handling equipment (gCaptain). gCaptain says the suspension covers Annexes I, II and III of the original action.

In its notice, USTR says the United States “is continuing to engage with China with the goal of obtaining the elimination” of the practices it targeted (gCaptain). The notice does not say whether China will extend its own matching fees on US-linked ships (gCaptain).

The new end date lines up with the wider trade truce. In September, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced after meeting Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng that the truce agreed at Busan would run to 10 January 2027 instead of 10 November 2026 (SAFETY4SEA). That left a gap. The truce moved, but the USTR fees did not. On 28 September, FreightWaves reported that the fees “remain scheduled to resume Nov. 10” because no formal notice had been issued. This week’s proposal closes that gap.

What happened last time

The fees are not theoretical. They were collected for about four weeks in 2025.

They took effect on 14 October 2025 (FreightWaves, 10 November 2025). Chinese operators and Chinese-owned ships paid $50 per net ton. Net tonnage is a measure of a ship’s cargo space, not its weight. Non-Chinese operators using Chinese-built ships paid the higher of $18 per net ton or $120 per discharged container. Fees were limited to one chargeable call per vessel per rotation and five rotations a year (FreightWaves, 28 September 2026). FreightWaves noted in November 2025 that large ships could owe millions of dollars for a typical rotation.

China hit back with its own “special port fees” on US-linked ships from 10 October 2025 (SAFETY4SEA). US carrier Matson reported paying $6.4m in those Chinese fees. China’s state-owned COSCO faced an estimated $1.5bn a year in US charges (gCaptain).

Then both sides stepped back. USTR suspended its fees for one year from 12:01 a.m. on 10 November 2025, after the Trump-Xi trade deal (FreightWaves). China suspended its fees too (gCaptain).

That episode is the template. Fees went live, then were pulled within weeks, as part of a larger bargain. The lesson for January: the fees are a bargaining chip. Their fate follows the talks, not the shipping market.

Who wants the fees back

The pause has opponents, and they are not going away.

Senators Mark Kelly and Elizabeth Warren wrote to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in June urging the fees be brought back. “Section 301 port fees are critical to revitalizing U.S. shipbuilding,” they wrote (gCaptain). Maritime unions have also criticised the suspension (gCaptain).

When the fees were first suspended, maritime consultant Hunter Stires, a former strategist to the US Navy Secretary, wrote on LinkedIn: “Suspending these port fees is a significant strategic mistake,” (FreightWaves, 10 November 2025).

The other side is bigger in number. More than 200 maritime and trade groups asked USTR to extend the suspension (FreightWaves, 28 September 2026). A March 2025 study by Trade Partnership Worldwide, backed by nearly 30 associations, estimated the fees would raise shipping costs by 8% to 14% (PPAI). Shipping companies have welcomed the pause (gCaptain).

There is also a bigger plan in the background. The administration’s Maritime Action Plan floats fees on all foreign-built commercial ships calling at US ports, from 1 to 25 cents per kilogram of imported cargo. The International Chamber of Shipping has warned this could disrupt global trade (gCaptain). The China fees are only one piece of a wider push on shipbuilding.

Our read: the pro-fee camp has political weight but has not won a round yet. Every deadline so far has ended in a pause. That pattern holds until the US-China talks break down.

What forwarders should do now

First, November. Check every rate sheet, surcharge notice and contract clause that mentions “USTR port fees”, “Section 301” or similar from 10 November. If this proposal is finalised, there is no fee to pass through for November calls. Push back on any surcharge that still shows up.

Second, the comment window. It closes on 30 October. A final notice should follow. Until it does, keep a line in your client updates saying the pause is proposed, not confirmed.

Third, January. This is where the real exposure now sits. The pause would end on 9 January, and the truce on 10 January. Sailings from China in late December and early January arrive in the US after that date. Those are pre-Lunar New Year cargoes, when space is tight and rates tend to firm. A fee restart then would land on the busiest weeks of the quarter.

So contracts and quotes signed now for Q1 should say who pays if the fees return. Shipping lawyers were already giving this advice in September. NorthStandard, a ship insurer, told owners to add clauses assigning responsibility for US and Chinese port fees, budget for possible charges, and keep watching (SAFETY4SEA). The same logic applies to forwarder and shipper contracts.

Fourth, carrier mix. The services most exposed are COSCO and OOCL, operators of Chinese-built tonnage, and car carriers calling the US. If you have a choice of carrier for January sailings, the fee risk is worth a line in the comparison. Do not move cargo on that basis yet. Just know which of your bookings would carry the cost.

Fifth, the China side. The notice is silent on Beijing’s matching fees (gCaptain). If those return, US-linked ships calling China pay. That matters for anyone using US-flag or US-owned tonnage on transpacific or intra-Asia loops.

What comes next

The two-month pause buys time for the bigger talks. PPAI reported that the truce extension leaves room for two summits in November and December (PPAI). The port fees will almost certainly be settled as part of whatever comes out of those meetings, not on their own.

That makes the January date soft. If the talks go well, expect another extension or a longer suspension tied to a broader deal. If they go badly, the fees return on 10 January, and China’s likely follow. In 2025, fees went live and were pulled again within four weeks. This time carriers have two months of warning. Expect them to use it to prepare surcharge notices, even if they never apply them.

Our prediction: USTR finalises the suspension to 9 January before 10 November. No material fees are collected from Chinese carriers for calls in November. If fees are actually collected on more than a handful of calls after 10 November, we were wrong, and forwarders should expect carrier surcharges to follow within weeks. A second call, also ours: by mid-December, at least one major carrier will publish a conditional surcharge tied to a possible fee restart on 10 January.

Sources