Expiry of US shipping fee suspension looms
A suspension of US shipping fees that could sharply increase the cost of bringing imported goods to Bermuda from the United States is due to expire on Monday.
The Section 301 investigation action, levying maritime fees targeting Chinese vessels, took effect on October 14, 2025, and was then suspended less than a month later.
The year-long suspension expires on November 9 and the Office of the US Trade Representative has proposed extending it by another two months.
In the US Federal Register on October 26, the USTR said a further extension would provide further time for the US to negotiate with China over the “harmful” practices that have led to Chinese domination of maritime trade.
In April 2025, John Wight, then the chairman of Bermuda Container Line, told a USTR hearing that the proposed fees - orginally levied at $1.5 million for US port call by a Chinese-built vessel, would be “catastrophic to our company, and to our island”.
“Weekly US port calls would cost BCL $76 million per year. To put this in a context, BCL's total annual revenues are only about $30 million per year … In any given year we earn about $1 million,” Mr Wight added.
Weeks later, the US announced adjustments to the policy, exempting various smaller vessels and voyages of less than 2,000 nautical miles from the fees.
Yesterday, two business bodies associated with the Caricom region, the Caricom Private Sector Organisation and the CPSO-US Business Council, announced that they had written to the USTR requesting that this exemption should continue.
In a statement, they said: “For the more than 6,250 firms across Caricom that the CPSO represents, these shipping routes are not optional: they are the only way goods reach the region, and several member states are served by only two or three liner companies.
“Under the original fee proposal, freight costs on Caribbean routes could have risen by 50 to 60 percent, resulting in higher prices for consumers and market losses for US and Caricom producers alike.”
The Royal Gazette has reached out to BCL, which imports goods from the US on the Chinese-built MV Oleander, for comment.
• See the relevant Federal Register entry in Related Media
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