China-linked vessel fees still set to return Nov. 10 despite the trade truce: what ocean importers should do

The details

• The fees stem from USTR’s Section 301 investigation into China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding policies. Chinese-operated and Chinese-owned vessels would face $50 per net ton; non-Chinese operators using Chinese-built ships would owe the greater of $18 per net ton or $120 per discharged container, as FreightWaves reported.
• The original schedule limits charges to one chargeable call per vessel per rotation and no more than five chargeable rotations per calendar year. A 100% U.S. tariff on Chinese ship-to-shore cranes and cargo-handling equipment is suspended on the same timeline.
• The suspension began Nov. 10, 2025, under the earlier U.S.–China economic détente, and expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Nov. 9. A one-year pause means carriers and shippers planned peak season without the charges.
• On Sept. 23, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides agreed to extend the broader “Busan Agreement” trade truce by two months, to Jan. 10, 2027, announced as President Xi Jinping met President Trump in Washington. That extension did not touch the Section 301 notice — no formal USTR action had been issued as of Sept. 28.
• More than 200 maritime and trade stakeholders, including the National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, signed a Sept. 23 letter urging USTR Jamieson Greer to keep the pause, warning that resumed fees would “create immediate and far-reaching consequences” for U.S. companies that rely on ocean transportation.
• China’s reciprocal “special port fees” on U.S.-linked vessels were suspended on a similar timetable, so a U.S. restart would risk parallel Chinese charges.
• Context: fees would land on an already-tight market, with Asia–U.S. container rates running near yearly highs of roughly $9,600 per FEU on some lanes, according to FreightWaves.

What buyers should do

• Ask carriers and forwarders, in writing, how they would handle a Nov. 10 restart: which surcharge codes, which lanes, and whether contract rates would absorb or pass through the fees.
• Stress-test peak-season landed cost models with the $120-per-discharged-container scenario on Chinese-built tonnage, which many non-Chinese carriers operate.
• Review service contracts for change-in-law and surcharge clauses, and note the five-chargeable-rotation annual cap when carriers justify broad surcharges.
• Map your supplier base for reliance on Chinese-flag or Chinese-built tonnage, especially on Asia–Gulf and Asia–Southeast Coast lanes where alternative capacity is thinner.
• Watch for USTR action before Nov. 9 and build a 30-day contingency plan for both outcomes rather than assuming an extension.

What to watch next

• A USTR Federal Register notice extending, revising or letting lapse the fee suspension, due before Nov. 9.
• Whether Beijing keeps its own suspended retaliatory port fees on U.S.-linked vessels, which the U.S. decision could trigger either way.
• Trans-Pacific spot rates heading into the final peak weeks — a restart signal would likely pull carriers’ GRIs and premium booking fees upward.

The bigger picture

The fee gap shows how layered 2026 trade exposure has become: the tariff-cutting framework in the 30-for-30 announcement covers goods, while maritime charges sit in a separate administrative track with its own deadlines. For buyers, the near-term direction of ocean costs depends less on demand than on two dates: Nov. 9 and the Nov. 10 exclusion deadline on other China trade measures. Rates are already diverging by lane, as our ocean rate analysis details.