Sen. Baldwin Calls on Trump to Combat China’s Shipbuilding Dominance
China is 'cheating,' she says. US Trade Representative report cites unfair trade practices.
Wisconsin’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, left, tours Fincantieri Ace Marine in Green Bay on April 22, 2024. She visited the plant to highlight a federal investigation into China’s alleged unfair trade practices. Joe Schulz/WPR
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is calling on the Trump administration to take action to curb China’s dominance in the shipbuilding industry, saying a new government report confirms the country’s use of unfair trade practices.
This month, the U.S. Trade Representative released the findings of an investigation into China’s shipbuilding industry. The report found that China’s dominance in shipbuilding displaces foreign firms, decreases opportunity for market-oriented businesses and reduces supply chain resilience.
The trade representative also found that the Chinese government “exerts extraordinary control over the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors.” That gives their shipbuilding industry a wide range of “non-market advantages” like artificially low costs and a lack of labor labor rights.
The report also found that “responsive action is appropriate” by the United States.
Baldwin has been focused on the issue for the last year. She joined the United Steelworkers and other labor unions in calling for the investigation last March. The following month, she toured a shipbuilding plant in Green Bay and said the investigation would support the state’s manufacturing sector and workers.
Following the report’s release, Baldwin told WPR it confirms that China has been “cheating.”
“The U.S. used to lead the world in commercial shipbuilding,” she said. “But over the last two decades, China has just surged ahead by cheating the system and employing unfair tactics.”
China’s shipbuilding market share increased from less than 5 percent of global tonnage in 1999 to more than 50 percent in 2023. It controls production of 95 percent of the world’s shipping containers and 86 percent of the supply of intermodal chassis, according to the trade representative’s report.
Baldwin said she will push for the Trump administration to crackdown on China’s dominance through “targeted tariff tools” and by applying port fees to Chinese-built vessels.
President Donald Trump has said he is considering placing a 10 percent tariff on all Chinese imports by Feb. 1. On the campaign trail, he had proposed up to 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods.
During his first administration, Trump enacted tariffs on more than $300 billion annually in Chinese imports, according to NPR. The Biden administration kept those tariffs in place and increased tariffs on roughly $18 billion of imports last year.
In addition to advocating to the White House, Baldwin said she will work with Congress to craft legislation that supports domestic shipbuilding.
“In Wisconsin, we do build ships, but predominantly we build ships for the Navy,” Baldwin said. “We need to be making commercial vessels too. We’re certainly capable of doing that, but it’s hard when there’s not a level playing field for U.S. shipbuilders and U.S. workers.”
Baldwin also said she expects there will be bipartisan support.
“We make things in Wisconsin — we have a big manufacturing sector — and my reaching out across the aisle with senators from other manufacturing states has proved very successful,” she said. “But I also think my colleagues on both sides of the aisle understand that China cheats.”
Baldwin isn’t the only federal lawmaker from Wisconsin to sound the alarm on China’s alleged unfair trade practices in recent years. In 2023, former U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Green Bay, held a makeshift hearing of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party at a manufacturing plant in Stoughton.
Labor, manufacturing groups weigh in
Roy Houseman, legislative director for the United Steelworkers, said the commercial shipbuilding industry in the U.S. has been atrophying, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
He said the union pushed for federal investigation because it represents workers that make parts for the industry.
“We noticed over time that a lot of our membership in the commercial shipbuilding supply chain were losing work, or the work that remained was all defense work,” Houseman said. “It had been declining over a period of time but, particularly in the last few years, we’ve seen this precipitous drop of materials that would have been traditionally made for commercial vessels.”
Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said the U.S. currently only has four naval shipyards making military vessels, and a handful of commercial shipyards.
He said U.S. producers build 10 or fewer ships annually while China puts out more than 1,000.
“That is just a staggering difference that’s obviously had an impact in communities where there used to be shipyards that were regularly producing ocean-going vessels,” Paul said. “Those have shrunk dramatically, and along with it, the supply chain, and then obviously the training that’s available for new workers.”
Paul and Houseman both said they would support the president applying port fees to Chinese-built ships, which would charge those ships for using U.S. ports. They said the fee could be used to fund efforts to rebuild the American shipbuilding sector.
“It took us several decades to see our shipbuilding capacity diminished, and it’s going to take a long time to build that back up,” Paul said.
Sen. Baldwin calls on Trump to take action to combat China’s shipbuilding dominance was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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