White House Unveils Maritime Action Plan, Floating New US Port Fees

On Friday, the White House unveiled is Maritime Action Plan (MAP), a 36-page strategy aimed at restoring what President Trump has called “America’s maritime dominance.”

Rooted in an executive order signed last April, the plan outlines initiatives ranging from shipyard investment incentives and mariner training programs to regulatory rollbacks designed to boost domestic shipping.

At the heart of the blueprint is a proposal with major implications for ocean freight: a new US port fee on foreign-built vessels. Cast as a national security measure, the plan argues that ships constructed overseas but operating in US trade should contribute to rebuilding American maritime capacity. It proposes a security fee each time such vessels call at a US port.

Unlike earlier flat-fee proposals, the MAP suggests calculating the charge based on the weight of imported cargo carried. The document presents scenarios, estimating that a levy of one cent per kilogram could generate about $66 billion over 10 years, while a 25-cent charge could raise nearly $1.5 trillion over the same period.

The plan does not directly address a separate port fee introduced by the US Trade Representative in October 2025. That measure, also targeting non-US-built ships, was suspended until November 2026 after US-China trade talks and China’s retaliatory tariffs. Whether it will be reinstated remains unclear.

Although the MAP outlines a framework for potential port charges, it is a policy roadmap rather than draft legislation. Key details — including timing and how costs would be shared between carriers and shippers — remain unsettled, leaving the industry facing continued uncertainty.

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