By VALERIE VOLCOVICI AND LISA BAERTLEIN
WASHINGTON- Fossil fuel and agriculture industry executives on Wednesday criticized a plan by President Donald Trump’s administration for big fees on China-linked ships entering US ports, arguing at a hearing in Washington that the move would hobble their ability to export everything from coal to soybeans.
The proposed fees on China-built vessels could top $3 million per US port call.
The administration says the fees would curb China’s commercial and military dominance on the high seas and promote a US shipbuilding renaissance.
Opponents say the plan could backfire on farmers, miners and other groups that Trump hopes would drive orders at domestic shipyards. Few vessels would be exempt, making US export prices unattractive, and foisting up to $30 billion of annual import costs on American consumers.
“The suggested policies do not punish China as intended, but rather punish American industry and will put American laborers out of work,” said Gregory Kravitz, senior vice president of transportation at Oxbow, a South Texas-based oil and gas company, at the congressional hearing.
Groups have asked the US Trade Representative for exemptions to the plan or phased-in fees, since it will take several years for US shipbuilders that turn out around five ships per year to compete with China’s output of more than 1,700 annually.
The energy industry is the top US exporter by value and is at risk because, like most others, it relies on fleets that own or have ordered ships from China.
Aaron Padilla, vice president of corporate policy at the powerful American Petroleum Institute, said the proposals will add significant costs to shipping.
“As a consequence, the proposed actions would harm the US position as a net energy exporter and undermine President Trump’s energy dominance agenda,” he told the hearing.
The move also threatens Trump’s goals of revitalizing the US industrial base, protecting American jobs and leveling the global playing field, said Veronika Shime, vice president of international policy and sustainability at the National Mining Association.
The issue, along with the administration’s escalating trade wars with China, Europe, Canada and Mexico, has revealed an unlikely fault line between Trump and executives from industries he promised to support.
