More than 200 trade associations, from the National Retail Federation to the American Farm Bureau Federation, wrote to USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer on 23 September 2026 asking him to extend the suspension of Section 301 maritime fees on Chinese-linked vessels past its 9 November 2026 deadline. If the suspension lapses with no replacement action, the base fee on Chinese-owned or Chinese-operated vessels jumps to 80 dollars per net ton, up from the 0 dollars that has applied since 10 November 2025. That is the single number every shipper with Asia-Pacific exposure needs before booking Q4 cargo.
This guide covers what the fees charge, what the pause covers and does not, how carriers handled the four weeks the fees were live, what industry is now asking for, and what to check in contracts before the deadline. As of 30 September 2026, no extension, lapse or modification has been announced.
What the fees actually charge, and who owes them
USTR's Notice of Action of 17 April 2025, published in the Federal Register on 23 April and modified on 16 October 2025, set fees under five annexes tied to the investigation into China's targeting of the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors. Liability sits with the vessel operator, not the cargo owner, a distinction that matters for every clause below.
| Annex | Who pays | Fee basis | Launch rate, 14 Oct 2025, dollars per net ton | 2028 rate, dollars per net ton | Per-container option, dollars (launch / 2028) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Chinese-owned or Chinese-operated vessel operators | Per net ton, up to 5 times a year per vessel | 50 | 140 | none |
| II | Any operator using a China-built vessel | Higher of the two options, up to 5 times a year per vessel | 18 | 33 | 120 / 250 |
| III | Operators of foreign-built vehicle carriers | Per net ton, up to 5 times a calendar year per vessel | 46 | no later step in the 16 October 2025 notice | none |
| IV | Operators of LNG carriers | Phased-in restrictions on LNG transport | not in effect | begins 17 April 2028, after the suspension window | none |
| V.A | Importers of Chinese ship-to-shore cranes and certain intermodal chassis and parts | Additional duty of 100 percent | in effect 9 November 2025, suspended from 10 November 2025 | no phase-in | none |
An operator's Section 301 exposure can be large on paper. Maritime lawyer Brian Maloney of Seward and Kissel, using Vespucci Maritime's estimate of 65,000 net tons for a 13,000 TEU containership, calculated that a Chinese-operated vessel under Annex I at the October 2025 rate owed about 3.25 million dollars per port call, or roughly 250 dollars per TEU fully loaded, rising toward 45.5 million dollars a year per vessel by 2028 at the five-voyage cap. That is Maloney's arithmetic on public data, not a USTR figure.
Annex II catches carriers with no Chinese ownership if they operate a China-built ship. Maloney put a 15,000 TEU vessel's Annex II exposure at roughly 2 million dollars per rotation. Chinese yards built about 71 percent of global ship orders by gross tonnage in 2025, per the Congressional Research Service's Section 301 brief updated 26 August 2026, so most major fleets carry some exposed tonnage. Sourcing Journal reported that Cosco and OOCL together paid roughly 43 million dollars in fees in the first week the charges were live, from 14 October 2025.
Exemptions that already narrow the fee
Before the fees took effect, USTR wrote carve-outs into Annex II: vessels arriving empty or in ballast; vessels of 4,000 TEU or less, 55,000 deadweight tons or less, or a bulk capacity of 80,000 deadweight tons or less; voyages of under 2,000 nautical miles from a foreign port to the continental United States; vessels at least 75 percent beneficially owned by US persons; US-owned or US-flagged vessels enrolled in the Maritime Security Program and similar sealift programs; specialized chemical tankers; Great Lakes vessels; and US government cargo. None of this changed with the suspension. It is the baseline the pause operates against.
What the suspension pauses, and what keeps moving
USTR suspended the fees under Annexes I, II and III, and the 100 percent duties under Annex V.A, for one year: from 12:01 a.m. Eastern on 10 November 2025 through 11:59 p.m. Eastern on 9 November 2026. The step followed the trade deal President Trump and President Xi Jinping reached on 30 October 2025 in South Korea. The Federal Register notice of 13 November 2025 (90 FR 50947) states that the April 2025 action "is no longer appropriate" given the deal and that the decision is "premised upon China's commitment to negotiate pursuant to Section 301." China's Ministry of Transport suspended its mirror Special Port Fees on the same clock, 10 November 2025 through 9 November 2026.
Two things do not pause. Annex IV, the LNG carrier requirement, starts 17 April 2028 and was never suspended because it is not yet in effect; USTR's notice says the Annex IV restrictions "are not yet in effect, and therefore would not be affected." And the goods-based Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, Lists 1 through 4A, tax cargo value at entry rather than vessel tonnage and are unaffected. The product exclusions carved out of those goods tariffs expire on the same 9 November 2026 date, a calendar coincidence rather than the same policy; our guide to the Section 301 China exclusions deadline covers that separately.
China's mirror fee
China's Ministry of Transport announced its retaliatory Special Port Fees on 10 October 2025, four days ahead of the US fees, covering vessels owned, operated or flagged by US persons, vessels in which US persons hold 25 percent or more equity or board seats, and US-built vessels. The published rate was 400 yuan per net ton from 14 October 2025, rising to 640 yuan by 17 April 2026, 880 yuan by 2027 and 1,120 yuan by 2028, capped at five voyages a year, mirroring the US fee's structure. We lined that rate up against the US Annex I schedule: at roughly 7.1 yuan to the dollar in October 2025, 400 yuan per net ton computes to about 56 dollars per net ton, close to the US opening rate of 50 dollars. Beijing's fees ran for four weeks, 14 October to 10 November 2025, before pausing on the same schedule as the US action.
How carriers handled the four live weeks
The record on pass-through is more mixed than a blanket surcharge story suggests. Maersk told customers on 23 September 2025 that no surcharge would be applied and no services changed, and Hapag-Lloyd published an advisory the same month titled "Consistent Service and No Surcharges." OOCL posted customer notices on 19 September and 10 November 2025, the second confirming the suspension. We could not locate a named "Section 301 surcharge" tariff filing from any of the carriers we checked for the live window. That does not settle whether cargo owners paid more: a cost absorbed into base rates is harder to trace than a labeled surcharge. Shippers who suspect it should compare October and November 2025 base rates on Asia to US lanes against the Freightos or Drewry indices.
What the industry is asking for now
The 23 September 2026 joint letter, coordinated by the National Foreign Trade Council and signed by the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the World Shipping Council, the International Chamber of Shipping and roughly 200 other associations, asks USTR to extend the suspension again, timed to the Trump-Xi summit window. Its core argument: vessel fees alone have not closed the US shipbuilding capacity gap the investigation targeted. Opposing pressure exists too: Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Kelly wrote USTR in June 2026 urging reinstatement for shipbuilding revitalization. USTR had not responded publicly to either letter as of 30 September 2026.
Three scenarios for 10 November 2026
These are scenarios, not forecasts. USTR's November 2025 notice says it "will consider whether it is appropriate to continue the suspension period or whether further action is appropriate in advance of the November 10, 2026 suspension deadline," and gives no signal of which way it will move. We could not find, in the letters or the trade press reviewed for this guide, any indication of which outcome USTR favors.
- Extension. USTR extends the suspension, likely for another year, matching the pattern of the original one-year pause and consistent with the joint association letter's request. Fees remain at 0 dollars.
- Lapse to scheduled rates. Annex I resumes at 80 dollars per net ton, the rate scheduled from 17 April 2026 but pre-empted by the suspension. Annex II resumes at its 2026 step of 23 dollars per net ton or 153 dollars per container, and Annex III at 46 dollars per net ton. China's mirror fee would likely resume in parallel at 640 yuan per net ton, under the reciprocity logic both governments used in November 2025.
- Modification. USTR uses the pause to rewrite rates, exemptions or coverage, a live option since the notice suspended rather than terminated the investigation.
Our read: the fee mechanism itself, the net-ton and per-container basis, and the vessel-ownership tests are unlikely to be scrapped even in a lapse or modification, since USTR simplified rather than withdrew the action after the 2025 comment period.
Checklist: what to do before 10 November 2026
- Pull ocean service contract and NVOCC tariff clauses referencing "regulatory pass-through," "government fee surcharge" or Section 301 by name. Confirm which party bears a resumed fee, and whether it can apply retroactively to cargo already afloat on 10 November.
- Ask each core carrier, in writing, whether their fleet assignment on your lanes includes Chinese-built or Chinese-operated tonnage. Annex II liability follows the ship, not the carrier's headquarters, so a European-flag carrier can still owe the fee on a China-built hull.
- Budget two Q1 2027 scenarios: continued 0 dollars, and an 80 dollar per net ton resumption on Chinese-operated tonnage, converted to your own per-container cost using the vessel size on your actual bookings.
- If you shifted volume onto COSCO, OOCL or other Chinese-linked carriers during the suspension, build a 30 to 60 day rebooking right into new bookings in case fees resume mid-contract.
- Track CBP's Cargo Systems Messaging Service and the Federal Register docket USTR-2025-0017 directly, since we could not find a named surcharge from the carriers we checked in 2025 and they may not publish one again.
- The separate Section 301 goods exclusions also expire 9 November 2026; see our exclusions guide and the Section 122 and Section 301 playbook for how the two dates interact.
Carrier fleet composition is worth checking against underlying shipbuilding and registry data: our rankings of the world's biggest shipbuilders, the largest ship registries and flag states, and the biggest container ships and shipping lines help identify which fleets carry the heaviest Annex I or Annex II exposure.
Common questions
Who legally owes the Section 301 maritime fee? The vessel operator, with fees paid to CBP through existing government payment methods, not the cargo owner or consignee.
Are the fees being charged right now, as of 30 September 2026? No. The fees under Annexes I, II and III and the Annex V.A duties on cranes and chassis are suspended through 9 November 2026 unless USTR acts before then.
Can fees paid during the live October to November 2025 window be refunded? The notice suspends liability from 10 November 2025 and we found nothing in it that provides refunds for fees already accrued.
Has China suspended its mirror fee too? Yes, on the same 10 November 2025 to 9 November 2026 timeline as the US action.
What are the realistic outcomes at the 9 November 2026 deadline? Three: another extension, a lapse to the scheduled 80 dollar per net ton (and equivalent Annex II/III) rates, or a modified fee structure. None has been announced as of 30 September 2026.
Sources: USTR Notice of Modification of Section 301 Action, Federal Register, 13 November 2025 (90 FR 50947); USTR Notice of Modification and Proposed Modification, Federal Register, 16 October 2025; Congressional Research Service, "Section 301 and China: Shipping and Shipbuilding Issues," IF12666, updated 26 August 2026; National Foreign Trade Council, Joint Association Letter to USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer, 23 September 2026; American Association of Exporters and Importers, 22 September 2026; Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China, Announcement on Imposing Special Port Fees on US Vessels, 10 October 2025, via BIMCO; CNBC, "With U.S. port fees on Chinese-built ships coming, ocean freight carriers scramble to avoid surprise financial hit," 10 October 2025; Sourcing Journal, "Cosco, OOCL Rack Up 43M in Port Fees in First Week After USTR Penalties Take Effect," October 2025; Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd customer advisories, September 2025; OOCL corporate messages, 19 September and 10 November 2025; Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Kelly, letter to USTR, June 2026. As-of date for all figures and status: 30 September 2026.