Relief as ro-ro operators are included in port fee suspension

ID 343463520 © Tomasragina | Dreamstime.com

Good news, ro-ro vessels have been included in the one-year suspension of port fees for US-related vessels calling into Chinese ports and Chinese related vessels calling into US ports.

The policy, initiated by Washington to bolster the US’s all but disappeared shipbuilding industry, was in effect for a little under a fortnight before President Trump and his opposite number in Beijing, Xi Xinping, agreed to a short-term truce.

According to Splash, “a host of American trade unions have blasted Trump’s decision to agree to a one-year suspension”, warning that shipbuilding in the US was “again being pushed aside”. Unions notwithstanding, the general sense is that it was a necessary move, with costs likely to soar as carrier heaped the additional costs onto consumers.