USTR port fees: the pause on ship fees would run to January 9, 2027 under a new proposal
USTR proposes keeping its Section 301 port fees on Chinese-built and Chinese-operated ships suspended for two more months, to January 9, 2027. Comments are due October 30. What it means for your freight.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) proposes to keep its Section 301 port fees on Chinese-built and Chinese-operated ships suspended for two more months. The current pause ends at 11:59 p.m. eastern time on November 9, 2026; the proposal would extend it through 11:59 p.m. eastern time on January 9, 2027. Written comments are due by 5:00 p.m. eastern time on October 30 to be assured of consideration.
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The short version
- USTR filed a notice on October 23, 2026 (Federal Register, October 26, 91 FR 67388) proposing to further suspend for two months the action in its Section 301 investigation of the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors.
- The proposed new suspension runs from 12:00 a.m. eastern time on November 10, 2026 through 11:59 p.m. eastern time on January 9, 2027. The current one-year suspension ends at 11:59 p.m. eastern time on November 9, 2026.
- During the suspension, no one would owe the fees on maritime transport services in Annexes I, II and III, or the 100% duties on ship-to-shore cranes and certain cargo handling equipment in Annex V.A.
- Comments go to docket USTR-2026-0694 on comments.ustr.gov by 5:00 p.m. eastern time on October 30, 2026. It is a proposal: USTR has not yet made the final decision.
By the numbers
Key dates
- 30Oct USTR comments due on extending the port-fee pause
- 9Jan Proposed end of the USTR port-fee pause
What changed
USTR's Section 301 action on the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors set fees on ships calling at US ports, in its April 23, 2025 notice, later modified on October 16, 2025. Under the November 2025 US-China arrangement, USTR suspended the action from 12:01 a.m. eastern time on November 10, 2025 through 11:59 p.m. eastern time on November 9, 2026.
The new notice, filed for public inspection on October 23, 2026, proposes two more months of suspension. Here is what the fees would be if they were not suspended, from the schedule in the April 2025 notice:
| Fee (April 2025 notice) | Who pays | Rate listed from April 17, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Annex I | Vessel operators of China (as defined in Annex I) | $80 per net ton of the vessel |
| Annex II | Other operators of Chinese-built vessels | The higher of $23 per net ton or $153 per container discharged |
| Annex III | Vehicle carrier vessels | Set separately; modified in October 2025 |
Source: Annexes I and II of the April 23, 2025 notice (90 FR 17114), which list rates rising each April 17 to 2028 and charge the fee up to five times a year per vessel. Exemptions and special rules in the annexes are not shown. None of these fees is collected while the action is suspended.
China's Ministry of Transport suspended its own special port fees on US vessels for one year from 13:01 (Beijing time) on November 10, 2025, in step with the US suspension, according to its announcement as reported by China News Service. We found no new Ministry of Transport announcement on that suspension as of October 25, 2026.
What it means for your business
The fees are charged to ship operators, not to you. But a carrier that pays them can pass them on as a surcharge, so the question for an importer is simple: will a surcharge appear on my December and January bookings? If USTR adopts the proposal, these fees would not be owed before January 10, 2027, so a carrier would have no USTR fee to pass on for these dates; carriers still set their own surcharges.
To show the size of what is paused, here is our arithmetic for one made-up ship call, using the April 2026 rates in the notice:
| Illustrative ship: 50,000 net tons, 3,000 containers discharged | Fee per call | Per container, spread evenly |
|---|---|---|
| Annex II, net ton basis (50,000 x $23) | $1,150,000 | $383 |
| Annex II, container basis (3,000 x $153) | $459,000 | $153 |
| Annex II fee owed (the higher) | $1,150,000 | $383 |
| Annex I, operator of China (50,000 x $80) | $4,000,000 | $1,333 |
Our calculation with an illustrative ship size and load; per-container figures are rounded to the dollar. Real ships, routes and carrier surcharges differ, and carriers decide whether and how to pass on any fee.
The proposed end date, January 9, 2027, falls the day before the January 10, 2027 end of the US-China truce that was reported in September. That truce date still has no published US government text, so treat both as dates to watch, not guarantees.
Separate from the ship fees: 178 Section 301 product exclusions on Chinese goods still end at 11:59 p.m. eastern time on November 9, 2026. This notice does not extend them, and no extension had been published in the Federal Register as of October 25. Our US-China deadlines page tracks both.
Who is affected
- Importers booking ocean freight from China for arrivals from November 10, 2026 onward.
- Amazon FBA and other sellers whose forwarder quotes include carrier surcharges.
- Shippers, carriers and port users who want to comment on the proposal by October 30.
What to do now
- Ask your forwarder in writing whether any quote for November to January arrivals includes a USTR port fee surcharge, and to remove it if the suspension is extended.
- Watch for USTR's final notice after October 30; we will update this page when it is published.
- If you want to comment, file under docket USTR-2026-0694 on comments.ustr.gov before 5:00 p.m. eastern time on October 30, 2026.
- Check your HTS codes against the 178 exclusions that end November 9; that date has not moved. Price it in the landed cost calculator.
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