Which of Your Cargoes Missed the Chemical Carve-Out?
USTR's fee on Chinese-built ships comes off suspension on November 9, and Monday's notice proposes to bridge it only to January 9. Bulk liquid chemical tankers are carved out of the fee by name. The drums and ISO tanks in a container box are not, and the per-container rate stepped to $153 while the meter was switched off.
The United States has had a service fee on Chinese-built ships since April of last year. It has been billable for 27 days.
The schedule took its first non-zero step on October 14, 2025, and the suspension landed at one minute past midnight on November 10.
Squeezed in between, a 100 percent duty on ship-to-shore cranes and intermodal chassis took effect for entries on or after November 9 and stopped accruing the following morning. A working life of one day.
That is the entire collection history of the Section 301 maritime action.
Monday's Federal Register carries the Trade Representative's proposal to suspend it again, and this time for two months rather than a year (91 FR 67388).
The suspension now in force expires at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on November 9, fourteen days out. The replacement, if it is adopted, carries the pause to January 9, 2027 and stops there.
Comments close Friday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
"If the fee has barely ever been collected, why would a chemical buyer read the annexes?"
Two reasons. The carve-outs are not where you would put them, and the rate schedule kept climbing while the meter was switched off.
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