“Unfortunately, USTR’s proposed port fees and restrictions on carriage of exports fail as a matter of policy and law. These proposed remedies would cause serious harm to wide swaths of the U.S. economy… The path to revitalizing the U.S. maritime industry is forward, and not backward through the imposition of retroactive fees that amount to...

A proposed, cumulative, penalty on Chinese shipping in the U.S. might be unconstitutional, several submitters to the U.S. Trade Representative Office have said. For example, internationally-regarded shipping expert, John D McCown, wrote in his submission that “the courts may very well determine that the proposed actions if implemented are not even legal”. If so, that would...