A normally conservative regional umbrella organization has told US trade authorities that any surcharge on Caribbean port calls by ships built in China could be devastating for regional trade.
Grenadian Patrick Antoine, president of the Private Sector Organization (CPSO) of CARICOM has asked the US Trade Representative for time to present the region’s case against plans by the Trump administration to hurt Chinese shipbuilders by imposing a $1 million fee for every port call by a ship made in China or by Chinese artisans to the Caribbean and other destinations.
The idea behind this proposal, said the recent US announcement, is to help destroy or cripple the all-powerful Chinese ship building industry while promoting the growth of the American sector, which US officials say is being badly outpaced by China and presents a security threat to the US.
Antoine argued that such measures would be “devastating for CARICOM countries, given that they would drive the cost of goods being moved out of US ports into the Caribbean to astronomical. Indeed, the social and economic ramifications of any such measures by the United States is unthinkable. The CPSO also recognizes the immediate jeopardy which any measure as may be under consideration by the USTR, will hold for CARICOM member states.”
The USTR held hearings on the issue on Monday and has also set aside Wednesday of this week and other dates to obtain feedback from industry stakeholders. It is not clear if the heads of governments from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Haiti who were scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jamaica on Wednesday would have raised the proposal with him among other areas of regional concern.
Rubio is also scheduled to head to Guyana and neighboring Suriname on Thursday for talks on regional issues including energy security.
The Nassau Guardian quoted Antoine as saying that shipping costs could rise by an astronomical 60 percent on ship calls to and from the Caribbean. Some shipping experts who testified at Monday’s hearings had said that they were told that fees could be between $1-3 million per port call, describing this as basically an insane proposal by Washington.
American shipbuilding per unit has been embarrassingly outpaced by the Chinese with contributors at the hearing providing data showing that Beijing’s share of the shipbuilding market has grown from 5 % in 1999 to 50 percent up to 2023.
Additionally, they noted that American builders turn out a mere 10 ships annually compared to China at 1,000.And even if Washington is able to implement the port fee, it will take years for US builders and others in allied destinations like Japan and South Korea to catch up with the Chinese while its industry continues to grow at an astronomical rate, shipping officials said.
Antoine said that the CPSO would relish the opportunity to state its objections to the tariff.“If afforded the opportunity to give testimony at the hearing, the organization will present evidence on the significant economic impact of the proposed measure, which will also bring damage to US firms with operations in the Caribbean.”
