Government

New US legislation takes aim at China’ s maritime industry

By Michael Angell

Congress wants to change US shipping law to further insulate the nation’ s ports from China’ s influence while boosting the domestic maritime industry. In addition, the Trump administration said it is putting grants for ports and other projects on a fast track by removing regulatory rules placed on them by the Biden administration.

The US House of Representatives on June 9 approved three bills that were sponsored by members of the House Transportation Committee. The bills, which all seek to amend US law that governs shipping, still need to be referred to the Senate for a vote.

The bills include the Maritime Supply Chain Security Act, sponsored by Rep. David Rouzer( R-North Carolina). Rouzer’ s bill would allow funds from the Maritime

A trio of bills seeking to chip away at China’ s maritime dominance have moved from the House to the Senate. Volodymyr TVERDOKHLIB Shutterstock. com

Administration’ s Port Infrastructure Development Program( PIDP) to replace cranes or related software that was installed“ by the People’ s Republic of China or any department, ministry, center, agency, or instrumentality of the Government of the People’ s Republic of China.”

Under current law, PIDP grants are for“ operational improvements” at ports, with no distinction as to the source of the equipment.

Rep. Ken Calvert( R-California) sponsored a second bill, called the Secure Our Ports Act, that would block any entity linked to China, Russia, North Korea or Iran from leasing or operating facilities at US ports. Any foreign transaction for a US-based asset already gets vetted through the Office of Foreign Asset Control under the Treasury Department.

A third piece of legislation, the American Cargo for American Ships Act, sponsored by Rep. Salud Carbajal( D-California), would require the US Department of Transportation( USDOT) to use US commercial vessels for carrying 100 % of the materials used in departmentfunded projects.

Current US shipping law requires federal agencies to have at least half of the materials used in any project shipped on US vessels if such vessels“ are available at fair and reasonable rates,” a similar condition outlined in Carbajal’ s bill.

As part of its efforts to remedy China’ s dominance of the maritime industry, the US Trade Representative( USTR) proposed in February that an increasing portion of US exports be carried on US vessels.

“ This unprecedented backlog of unobligated grants delayed critical investments.”

However, the proposal was ultimately nixed in the USTR’ s final list of remedies. The USTR is also considering a new set of tariffs on Chinese crane and port equipment.

Separately, USDOT said in a June 10 statement it had approved 76 infrastructure projects that had already been approved for unobligated grants under the Biden administration but not executed.

The agency said it“ ripped out burdensome” requirements for the projects that will now allow them to go forward. USDOT said it has cleared about one-third of 3,200 projects from the previous administration.

“ This unprecedented backlog of unobligated grants delayed critical investments in communities across the country,” USDOT said.

Among the newly obligated grants are a $ 43 million PIDP grant from 2023 to build a marshalling area at the Sparrow Point project outside of the Port of Baltimore. USDOT had previously freed up a $ 54 million grant award for the Northwest Seaport Alliance for expanding the Port of Tacoma’ s Husky Terminal.

email: michael. angell @ spglobal. com www. joc. com July 7, 2025 | Journal of Commerce 27