The United States and China have agreed to suspend their tit-for-tat application of port service fees on each other’s docking vessels for one year, according to Reuters.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, he has attempted to wage an economic war on China—as well as on several other countries – by implementing tariffs and other punitive trade measures, with varying degrees of success.
The suspension follows a meeting between China’s Xi Jinping and Trump, in line with agreements reached during their summit in South Korea.
According to the China Lubricant Information Network, these U.S. restrictions would have had a negligible impact on China’s lubricant-related exports. The dispute was expected to create only slight upward pressure on the cost of U.S. additive products imported by China.
Chinese Customs data shows that U.S. lubricant additive exports to China remained relatively low between 2020 and 2024, accounting for only 0.05% to 2.53% of China’s total imports. In 2024, U.S. additive exports to China represented 0.53% of total U.S. exports.
In mid-October, Beijing adopted new policies regarding docking fees for U.S. vessels in response to the U.S. Section 301 investigation into China’s maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors.