On April 9, local time, US President Donald Trump signed a comprehensive executive order called "Restoring America's Maritime Dominance", aiming to revitalize the weak shipbuilding industry, strengthen the maritime workforce, and expand the United States' influence in the global shipping field through a series of measures.
The background of the latest move is that the United States' shipbuilding capabilities are seriously lagging behind China. At present, US shipyards account for only 0.2% of the total global shipbuilding, while China is as high as 74%; the number of merchant ships built by the United States accounts for less than 1% of the world, while China accounts for about half of the world. The United States does not produce containers for global transportation at all, while China produces 96%; 80% of the shore bridge cranes used in U.S. ports come from China, and local production in the United States is blank.
"To address these issues, a comprehensive set of solutions is needed, including ensuring the sustained, predictable and stable supply of federal funds, making ships built in the United States commercially competitive in international trade, rebuilding U.S. maritime manufacturing capacity, and expanding and strengthening the recruitment, training and retention of relevant labor."
“We will invest a lot of money in the shipbuilding industry, and we are currently far behind,” Trump said. “We have built a lot of ships in the past. Now, although there are not many shipbuilding, we are about to restart large-scale construction quickly. This will have a huge impact.”
It is understood that the core of the executive order is the "Maritime Action Plan (MAP)" and the plan must be submitted within 210 days. The U.S. President's Assistant for National Security Affairs will coordinate with the State Department, the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security and other departments to jointly formulate this comprehensive cross-sectoral strategy.
The executive order proposes a series of key tasks and sets specific deadlines:
Within 30 days, the Department of Transportation must start addressing the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s emergency maintenance issues and begin hiring necessary facility managers. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Homeland Security need to review relevant regulations to identify and promote possible ways to deregulate.
Within 45 days, the government will complete a comprehensive review of ship construction, focusing on improving competitiveness and reducing cost overruns in government ship construction.
Within 90 days, multiple results will be completed, including dialogue with international allies on trade policy, modeling the "opportunity zones" model during Trump's first term, developing the Maritime Prosperity Zones concept, attracting investment from domestic and friendly countries in the United States; and submitting a detailed report on the needs of the marine industry. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense will also need to formulate an Arctic water security strategy during this period.
In terms of labor development, the executive order requires a comprehensive assessment of seafarer training and education, including feasibility analysis of the establishment of a new merchant marine college, and the establishment of national scholarships for local maritime talents to study abroad and foreign experts to teach in American colleges and universities.
The executive order particularly emphasizes the response to China's dominance in the maritime field, and requires the U.S. Trade Representative to take measures to counter China's unfair competition in the shipbuilding industry and consider imposing Article 301 tariffs on the use of shore bridges and cargo loading and unloading equipment containing Chinese-made parts or manufactured by enterprises affected by China.
