Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi Responds To Biden Administration USTR Finding That The CCP’s Targeting Of The Maritime, Logistics, and Shipbuilding Sectors for Dominance Is Actionable Under Section 301

January 21, 2025
Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party issued the following statement regarding last week’s findings by the Biden Administration’s U.S. Trade Representative in its Section 301 investigation launched last year into the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) targeting of the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance. The investigation concluded that the PRC’s targeted dominance in these sectors is unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce, and is therefore “actionable” under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. 

“We welcome the Biden Administration’s findings from its investigation of the Chinese Communist Party’s policies to dominate the global shipbuilding and maritime industries. The U.S. Trade Representative’s conclusion that the CCP has worked for decades to dominate these industries globally through aggressive non-market practices should set off alarm bells across the U.S. government and private sector. For too long, these policies have severely harmed U.S. companies and workers while threatening the U.S. economy and our national security generally as China has grown to control over 50 percent of the world’s shipbuilding market in 2023, compared to the U.S.’s 0.2 percent.

“Today, for every one large ocean-going vessel the U.S. builds each year, China builds 359—to the point that we now rely on China to build ships for the Department of Defense’s own cargo ship and tanker fleets. We hope the Trump Administration will take these findings as a call to action to work with Congress to fight back against the CCP’s discriminatory policies in these industries, eliminate our supply chain vulnerabilities, and regain America’s identity as a great commercial maritime power for the 21st century.”

###