Dr. Athanasios Pallis and Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Seaports are increasingly attracting interest as geopolitical levers, given their typical functionalities in stimulating national and regional industrial development and securing trade. The use of port charges as tools for achieving geopolitical objectives is indicative of this interest.
In 2025, the United States and the People’s Republic of China used port charges as tools to advance their geopolitical aspirations. For the United States, the goal is to achieve greater reciprocity in trade balances and tariffs on its exports compared to those on imports. Another goal is to increase the number of US-flagged commercial vessels, which accounted for only 0.6% of global capacity in 2023. On the grounds of such geopolitical considerations and the consequent further escalation of ongoing trade tensions, the administrations of these two economic powers and participants in global maritime trade imposed additional port charges on calls by seagoing vessels flying the flag of the other country. The extra charges apply to both cargo and passenger vessels, affecting the respective shipping markets, ports, and related maritime logistics.
The US imposed extra port fees on China-built, owned, and operated ships and foreign-built vehicle carriers calling at US ports, starting October 2025, as part of initiatives to address China’s growing dominance in the maritime sector. Fees imposed on ships built, owned, or operated by Chinese entities are paid directly to the US Department of the Treasury, not at the port of entry, and are intended to help revive US shipbuilding. However, this move is part of a broader strategy to address concerns over national security, supply chain resilience and the competitive landscape of global shipping. The regulatory action follows ongoing scrutiny of Chinese-built or owned vessels and their role in US maritime infrastructure – and the investigation into China’s “targeting the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance”, which had been launched in 2024 under the previous US administration.
Although subject to certain exemptions, the fee structure is designed to impose additional costs on vessels constructed in China, regardless of ownership or flag state. Initially, vessels owned or operated by a Chinese entity will face a flat fee of $50 per net ton per voyage to the US. For vessels built in China but operated by a non-Chinese entity, the initial rate is around $18 per net ton or $120 per container discharged (whichever is higher), with these fee levels scheduled to increase over the next three years. A vessel classified as a foreign-built vehicle carrier or roll-on/roll-off vessel will also be subject to a $46 fee per net ton. These fees are imposed on a vessel no more than five times a year to avoid overly impacting container shipping with ships calling US ports multiple times per year. The fee may be suspended for a period not to exceed three years if the vessel owner orders and takes delivery of a U.S.-built vessel of equivalent or greater net tonnage. Fees will not be charged to Chinese-built vessels or vehicle carriers carrying US government cargo, or to privately owned U.S.-flag vehicle carriers under bareboat charter to the US government. Additionally, there are various other exemptions to the fees for certain Chinese-built vessels.
In the container market, the move is expected to cost the top 10 cargo carriers $3.2 billion in port fees in 2026, with China’s COSCO Shipping estimated to be most exposed, owing $1.5 billion in potential port fees next year [SOURCE?].
China responded to US port fees on Chinese ships with countermeasures that had an immediate effect. It could not apply the same fee structure as the United States since there are few US-flagged ships. In October 2025, it issued special port fees for vessels on US services calling at Chinese ports, with the “special port fee” calculated per net ton. The $55 per net ton was planned to increase annually until reaching over $155 per net ton. Two classes of vessels are charged a maximum of five voyages per year, with the fee levied only at their first port of call in China. The first one is the ’pure’ US vessels. i.e., owned or operated by US nationals or entities registered in the US; vessels built in the US; or vessels flying the US flag. The second one is US-linked vessels, i.e., cases where a US national or a US entity directly or indirectly holds 25% or more of the voting rights or board seats in the entity that owns or operates a vessel. The latter marks a paradigm shift from traditional concepts of “flag” or “vessel origin” to a “shareholder-based” regulatory logic. The special port fee does not apply to Chinese-built vessels or ballast calls at Chinese shipyards.
Although the extra port charge was initially intended for cargo vessels, the impact on the operations of U.S.-owned cruise ships in China was evident immediately, particularly since the world’s two largest cruise consortia, Carnival and Royal Caribbean, are headquartered in the United States. The cruise market is affected by the new policies because cruise ships are disproportionately larger. Therefore, the new charge led to the cancellation of scheduled calls to Shanghai and diversion to Busan, South Korea, to avoid the charges. Estimates of the costs for the vessel that was first to cancel, Oceania Cruises’ Riviera, are that under the new rule, the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings-owned vessel would need to pay local authorities $1.64 million to dock in China.
With Shanghai serving as a primary homeport for foreign cruise ships operating in China, exemptions were subsequently granted to homeported vessels. Another Royal Caribbean vessel called in Shanghai after receiving a waiver of the special port fee, allowing it to continue its operations in China. The 168,666-ton Spectrum of the Seas would have been required to pay nearly $10 million this year, an amount that would increase to over $26 million in 2028. This exemption is expected to apply specifically to vessels home-ported in China. As cruise ships targeting international markets are unlikely to receive exemptions, other cruise lines planning stops in Chinese ports may revisit their itineraries, with changes reflecting shifting market dynamics driven by geopolitical considerations.
Following a meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, these measures were suspended for a year, less than a month after their implementation. Ports were part of a broader trade truce between the two countries that included the suspension of US rules on Chinese-built ships and Chinese shipping companies, as well as the removal of Chinese fees on American ships, just two weeks after they took effect.