[Freight Weekly] Labor Unions Target Chinese Shipbuilding

_{🛡️U.S. labor unions call for fees on Chinese-built cargo ships}

Labor unions have asked the U.S. Trade Representative to place a fee on each ship built in China that docks at American ports. The unions accuse China of alleged unfair shipbuilding practices. What you need to know:

• Labor unions, including those affiliated with the AFL-CIO, call for the U.S. Trade Representative to place a fee on vessels built by shipbuilders in the People’s Republic of China to level out an unfair playing field on trade.

• The labor unions want the Trade Representative to establish a new fee schedule based on the tonnage of a Chinese vessel docked at a U.S. port. Much larger and heavier vessels would bear the greater costs.

• Funds generated by these collected fees would be used to fund and revive shipbuilding in the United States and augment the workforce.

• This proposal comes shortly after the United Steelworkers openly petitioned the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate Communist China’s supposed anti-competitive commercial shipbuilding practices.

• “Once home to nearly 30 major shipyards, the United States now has only a fraction of that,” stated USW International’s union president David McCall. He said the United States lost about 70,000 shipbuilding jobs.

Bottom line: Adding costs to the supply-value chain, directly and indirectly, union demands to the U.S. Trade Representative could become yet another flashpoint in the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.

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