For car carriers and LNG tankers, the US Trade Representative (USTR) on Friday rowed back on its plans to penalise Chinese-linked tonnage.
In April, the USTR detailed plans to start charging China-linked tonnage calling at US ports from the middle of October this year, in a bid to both curb China’s dominance in the field of shipbuilding as well as boost domestic shipyard capabilities.
The measures have attracted plenty of criticism with the USTR now deciding it will charge Chinese-linked car carriers not on a car equivalent unit-basis, but on net tonnage, suggesting that this is easier to apply.
For LNG carriers, the office of the USTR has listened to the concerns raised by the American energy producers. Under earlier guidelines from the USTR, LNG shippers would have been required to move 1% of US LNG exports on US-built, operated and flagged vessels within four years or risk losing their LNG export licences. The US LNG industry has made clear its concerns this rule could block exports or disrupt the energy business with the USTR deciding to remove the threat of removing export licences.
Only three of the 800 LNG carriers in the fleet today are US-built, all dating back to the 1970s.
