The American Petroleum Institute has warned that the taxes of American ports proposed for Chinese ships could damage the position of the United States as one of the largest oil exporters to the world, since shipping costs should be increased according to this regime.
Based on an investigation pursuant to the article on “Chinese targeting of marine and logistical sectors and naval construction for domain”, the American commercial representative suggested to impose $ 1.5 million taxes on each entrance to American ports on ships adopted by Chinese basins or managed by Chinese companies.
Alex Badilla, vice -president of the companies of companies at the American Petroleum Institute, said in a certificate that he made in an audition in front of the American commercial representative and other officials of the United States on March 26, that taxes relating to this proposal can make it difficult for American energy companies to export liquefined oil and natural products and repeated products, usually this measure can also hinder the imports of oil. for haste.
Badilla said in the hearing that the proposed commissions will make exports less in competition on a global level and undermine the goal of the President of the United States Donald Trump, who has often announced making American energy dominated by the global market.
Badilla has argued that if the proposed commissions are implemented, this can lead to additional costs of up to 30 billion dollars a year on American consumers, with exports of crude oil and natural gas up to 18.5 percent and 5.19 percent, respectively.
He said: “We must start from the beginning and put something completely different, something that would be a more strategic and more successful approach to stimulate the resetting of the competitiveness of the United States in (naval construction).”
He added: “We have to look very carefully in all bars and not undermine our economic competitiveness and geopolitical moderation, especially in energy exports”.
Effects of crude oil
In 2024, a barrel of every five barrels of oil transferred to the United States or outside the United States were transported by a Chinese oil tanker, with international American commercial flows of raw and duplicated 12.3 million barrels per day, according to “Standard & Poor Insights Comments” analysts. They wrote: «Wait for a decrease in the competitiveness of the importers and exporters of American oil, in particular for short -term ships and smaller ships due to the further restrictions of the oil tankers. The effect will be more important for raising imports from Latin America and western Africa, where shipments are often transported to smaller ships. “
For refined products, the analysis shows that out of 3.2 million barrels per day of water -related oil products, 560 thousand barrels per day were transported by a Chinese carrier. The port of Houston, as a larger download door, took care of about 30 percent (940 thousand barrels per day) of total loads, since the oil tankers made Chinese contributed to 190 thousand barrels per day.
An analysis of the “Deruri” Marine Research Society has indicated that the use of Chinese ships for the large oil tankers of Greggio will be economically unfair and in the need of the American crude oil industry, since “even the smallest product oil tanker will have to pay for exorbitant expenses, approaching 10 million dollars, which can reach 105.3 million dollars for a giant oil tank for each visit for the port.
“Standard & Poor’s Insights” analysts have indicated that this policy can create a market for two -level oil tankers, since non -Chinese ships will get in addition to the operations in American ports. They wrote that, in maximum cases, this can lead to the allocation of non -Chinese shuttle vectors for transport from one ship to another close to American waters, which leads to evading taxes.
Investigation and work
The proposal of the American commercial representative office arrives at a time when the fee of the China of global ships has increased, while the American Navi industry produces only five ships per year compared to 1700 Chinese ships. The representative office of American trade estimates that the Chinese share of the naval construction market has gone less than 5 % in 1999 to over 50 percent in 2023.
Until March 26, over 500 comments were presented to the Commercial Representative Office of the United States regarding the proposal for port commissions, as well as 14 listening sessions in a two -day hearing at the headquarters of the US commercial representative office this week.
The representative office of American trade has started its result based on a petition of five national unions that required an investigation on “China’s actions, policies and practices that aim at the sectors of maritime transport, logistics and naval construction of hegemony”.
The representative office of American trade has declared in a declaration of having decided to go on with the procedures after discovering its investigation on the fact that “targeting China for the domain is unreasonable because it moves foreign companies, prohibits companies aimed at the market and their workers of commercial opportunities, reduces competition and creates an addiction to the People’s Republic of China, which increases the risks and reduces the flexibility of the chain.
To avoid taxes, the current suggestion will require that the operators headquarters are outside China and that they have fleets less than 25 percent of Chinese ships built and that there are no requests or Chinese deliveries in the Chinese naval construction basins in the next two years.
