AMERICAN determination to rapidly reboot the US maritime industries is unlikely to wane after the Trump presidency is over, a leading Washington lawyer has told the industry.
“There is a very aggressive, significant effort underway in Washington for the first time in our lifetimes,” said Chris Johnsen, a partner in the governmental relations practice group.
He was speaking at an Economist conference in Athens as general counsel for the Coast Guard Foundation and a former chair of USA Maritime.
“This president and this Congress are very serious about it,” said Johnsen.
At the same time, the desire to build up the US’s merchant shipping and shipbuilding capabilities was “very bipartisan”, he said.
“Politics in the US is so fragmented and there are not that many things left that Democrats and Republicans are working together on, but this is one of them. It is one thing that unites the factions.”
Concerns about China’s growing dominance in the sector had “galvanised” political will.
“No one is thinking we can match China’s capacity immediately, but the thinking is we need to get started now before it gets worse.
“The plan is to bring back massive construction subsidies to build ships in the US and massive operating subsidies so US-flag vessels can compete internationally.”
The initiative would need spending of “hundreds of billions of dollars”, but President Trump “does not seem fazed by it at all”.
The administration has proposed to levy a tax on all foreign-flagged vessels coming into US ports and the revenues would go towards “establishing a New Maritime Golden Age”, as the White House has put it.
Johnsen also pointed to plans to introduce a measure of cargo reservation that would see US-built and flagged vessels preferred for certain cargoes.
The goal is to have 250 vessels on the high seas in the next 10 years.
“We would expect in the next 12-24 months we could see a number of these initiatives enacted,” he said.
Johnsen acknowledged that not all aspects of the US push in the sector would appeal to “many in this room and across the globe.
“If you don’t like it, now is the time to be taking it up with your contacts and representatives in the US.”
