DECOUPLING: US probe finds China unfairly dominates shipbuilding, paving way for penalties, sources say.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has concluded China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, three sources familiar with the results of a months-long trade investigation told Reuters.
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai launched the probe in April 2024 at the request of the United Steelworkers and four other U.S. unions under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the U.S. to penalize foreign countries that engage in acts that are “unjustifiable” or “unreasonable,” or burden U.S. commerce.
Investigators concluded that China targeted the shipbuilding and maritime industry for dominance, using financial support, barriers for foreign firms, forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft and procurement policies to give its shipbuilding and maritime industry an advantage, said one of the sources who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Beijing also “severely and artificially suppressed China’s labor costs in the maritime, shipbuilding and logistics sectors,” that person added, citing excerpts of the report.
None of this comes as a huge surprise and all of it was probably inevitable the moment the West welcomed a Communist regime with a billion people into an international economic system meant for free countries.
