China has announced a one-year suspension of “special port fees” on United States vessels, marking another major step toward easing tensions as both countries continue to implement the trade truce agreed upon by Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
The suspension, which took effect on Monday, applies to ships built in or operated by the United States that call at ports in China.
According to China’s Ministry of Transport, the decision mirrors Washington’s earlier announcement pausing levies on Chinese-operated ships, a move both sides describe as reciprocal and aimed at stabilising trade relations.
For months, the United States and China have been locked in a punishing tariff war, with duties on both sides reaching triple-digit levels at the height of the dispute.
The standoff severely disrupted global supply chains and slowed movement of goods between the world’s two largest economies.
Following a bilateral meeting in South Korea last month, both presidents agreed to gradually roll back some of the restrictions.
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In a related move, China also suspended sanctions on five US subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean, one of South Korea’s leading shipbuilders.
The sanctions were originally imposed in October after Beijing accused the subsidiaries of supporting a US “Section 301” investigation that challenged China’s dominance in the global shipbuilding sector.
The one-year suspension, effective November 10, includes pausing a planned probe into whether the US investigation undermined China’s shipbuilding security and development.
Beijing’s gestures mark the latest signs of thawing relations, coming days after China extended a suspension of additional tariffs on US goods—maintaining them at 10 per cent—and lifted certain duties on soybeans and other American agricultural imports.
China also paused an export ban on gallium, germanium and antimony, metals vital for electronics and defence manufacturing, and agreed to ease restrictions on rare earth technology exports.
The US, in exchange, suspended for one year export restrictions on affiliates of foreign companies blacklisted under Washington’s trade rules, provided those affiliates are at least 50 per cent owned by non-sanctioned entities.
The broader trade truce comes at a time when China’s shipbuilding industry, which now produces nearly half of the world’s newly launched ships, continues to dwarf the once-dominant US sector, which accounts for just 0.1 per cent of global output.
Although the one-year suspensions do not represent a permanent resolution to the trade war, analysts view the moves as a meaningful effort to defuse hostilities and prevent further economic fallout. Still, both nations have left open the possibility of reinstating penalties if negotiations falter.
The fragile pause reflects an attempt by Beijing and Washington to stabilise a relationship that has deeply affected global trade flows, manufacturing networks, and strategic industries over the past year.
AFP
