On Wednesday, we joined a broad coalition of farm, business and shipping groups in a letter urging U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to keep port fees on Chinese-built ships on hold past their Nov. 9 expiration. We pushed for the original pause last year because those costs would fall on U.S. dairy exporters, and that’s still true. Chinese-built ships carry much of the world’s ocean freight, so the fees would drive up shipping costs across the board and make U.S. dairy less competitive overseas. They also won’t rebuild U.S. shipbuilding, which requires long-term investment.
The timing lines up with this week’s news that the U.S. and China extended their trade truce by two months, to Jan. 10, to keep working toward a bigger deal.
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