China Ship Fees Return Nov 10: What Importers Should Do

At 11:59 p.m. Eastern on November 9, 2026, the one-year pause on U.S. port fees for China-linked ships runs out. Unless the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) publishes a new notice before then, ocean carriers will owe those fees again on vessels arriving from November 10.7 As of this week, no such notice has appeared.

Most importers have heard the White House say the U.S.-China truce now runs to January 2027. That is not the same thing. The ship fees sit in their own Federal Register notice, and that notice still has a November 9 end date. If you have freight on the water or booked for late November, this is a cost line you should plan for now, not after it shows up on an invoice.

What These Fees Are and Why They Exist

The fees come from a Section 301 investigation into China's dominance of shipbuilding, maritime and logistics. Section 301 is the trade law that lets USTR respond to unfair foreign practices, the same law behind the China tariffs most importers already pay. USTR finalized the ship fees in April 2025 and they took effect on October 14, 2025.1

They lasted less than a month. After Presidents Trump and Xi met in South Korea on October 30, 2025, the U.S. agreed to suspend the measures for one year starting November 10, 2025. China agreed to suspend its own retaliatory port fees on U.S.-linked ships for the same period.2

Importantly, these are not duties on your goods. They are charged to the ship operator per port call. But carriers do not absorb costs like this for long, and when the fees briefly applied in October 2025, the industry expected them to be billed back to shippers as surcharges.

Who Pays What If the Fees Come Back

The April 2025 notice set up separate fee tracks depending on who owns, operates or built the ship. A vessel falls under one track only, they do not stack.3

Each ship can be charged up to five times a year, once per U.S. rotation.3 There are exemptions for the Chinese-built track, including ships of 4,000 TEU or less, vessels arriving empty, and voyages under 2,000 nautical miles. Those exemptions matter for some short-sea and feeder services, but almost every big transpacific ship is well over 4,000 TEU.

One open question: the schedule was supposed to step up to the higher tier on April 17, 2026, during the pause. USTR has not said publicly whether resumed fees would restart at the 2025 rates or at the April 2026 tier. Plan for the higher number until you hear otherwise.

What that means per container

Here is a rough way to think about it. A Chinese-operated ship of 50,000 net tons would owe about $2.5 million per voyage at $50 per net ton, or $4 million at $80.6 Spread across 5,000 containers discharged in the U.S., that is $500 to $800 per box. A Chinese-built ship run by a non-Chinese line pays at least $120 to $153 per container discharged, before the carrier adds any margin.

That is our illustration, not a carrier tariff. Actual surcharges will depend on the ship, the number of boxes it drops in the U.S., and how each line chooses to spread the cost.

Which Carriers Are Most Exposed

This is where the fees get personal. Your exposure depends on which carrier and which ship your container is on, not on what you are importing.

Shipping consultancy Alphaliner estimated in October 2025 that the top 10 container lines faced about $3.2 billion in fees in 2026 if they kept their U.S. deployments unchanged.4 The split was very uneven:

• COSCO: about $1.53 billion, nearly half the total

• ZIM: about $510 million, largely from ships chartered from Chinese owners

• ONE: about $363 million

• CMA CGM: about $335 million

• Hapag-Lloyd: about $105 million

• Maersk: about $17.5 million

• Evergreen and HMM: close to zero, thanks to mostly non-Chinese-built fleets

Those numbers will have shifted as carriers moved ships between trades over the past year. Carriers already showed in 2025 that they will reshuffle vessels to avoid fees, which can mean schedule changes and blank sailings on short notice.4 Either way, the takeaway holds. Two quotes on the same lane can carry very different port fee risk.

Why the Truce Extension Does Not Settle This

On September 23, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the broader trade truce would be extended to January 10, 2027. But the ship fee suspension was created by a USTR Federal Register notice, and only another Federal Register notice can change it. As of late September, USTR had not published one.6

Industry is pushing hard. On September 23, a coalition including the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Agriculture Transportation Coalition wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer asking for the pause to be extended. They warned that resumed fees on China-linked vessels "would create immediate and far-reaching consequences."5

Our view: an extension is more likely than not, given the truce. But "likely" is not a plan. If the deadline passes before a notice is published, even for a few days, carriers can start billing surcharges on ships arriving in that window. China's reciprocal fees on U.S.-linked ships are on the same clock, so a lapse on one side could quickly pull in the other.7 There is also no refund mechanism for the fees paid in October and November 2025, so money paid during a lapse is unlikely to come back.7

What Importers Should Do Before November 10

You have three weeks. Here is how we would use them.

1. Map your November and December sailings

Pull every container booked to arrive in the U.S. on or after November 10. For each one, note the carrier, the vessel name and the service. The fee is triggered when the ship arrives at its first U.S. port, not when you booked, so cargo already on the water is in scope.

2. Ask your forwarder which ships are exposed

Ownership, operator and build country are public for most vessels. Your ocean freight partner should be able to tell you which of your bookings sit on Chinese-operated or Chinese-built ships, and which carriers have said how they will bill the fee.

3. Read your contract's surcharge clause

If you have a service contract, check whether it allows the carrier to pass through new government-imposed fees. Many do. If you buy on the spot market, expect the fee to show up as a separate line item, likely labeled something like a USTR or Section 301 vessel surcharge. Ask for it to be quoted up front, not added at invoice. Our post on reading peak season surcharges on your freight bill covers how to push back on line items you did not agree to.

4. Get an alternative routing quote

For time-flexible cargo, get a parallel quote on a carrier with low exposure, such as one running mostly Korean, Japanese or Taiwanese-built ships. You may not switch, but having the number gives you leverage if your current carrier adds a surcharge.

5. Add a line to your Q4 landed cost

Budget a contingency of a few hundred dollars per container on exposed sailings arriving after November 10. If USTR extends the pause, you release the buffer. If it does not, you are not explaining a margin hit to your finance team in December. Holiday inventory that is already priced is where a surprise per-box fee hurts most.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the USTR port fees a tariff on my goods?

No. They are charged to the vessel operator per U.S. port call, not to the importer of record by CBP. You will only see them if the carrier passes them through as a surcharge, which is the expected outcome.

Does this affect shipments to Europe?

Not directly. The fees apply only at U.S. ports. European importers could still feel second-order effects if carriers shift ships between trades to avoid the fees.

Will the fees definitely return on November 10?

Only if USTR does nothing. An extension tied to the January 10, 2027 truce date is possible, but it requires a new Federal Register notice. Until that notice is published, November 10 is the legal restart date.

The Bottom Line

The November 9 deadline is a small paperwork detail with a real price tag. The importers who come out fine will be the ones who know which of their boxes sit on exposed ships, have a surcharge quoted in writing, and have a backup routing ready. That work takes a few hours now, and it pays off whether USTR acts or not. For more on what the U.S.-China relationship means for your freight, see our take on the Trump-Xi summit and what it means for importers.

Want to know which of your Q4 sailings are exposed? Talk to Cubic. We will check your bookings vessel by vessel, quote low-exposure alternatives on the same lane, and make sure your customs entries and landed costs stay clean through the end of the year.