Suche

What does Trump’s presidency mean for shipping?

Donald Trump has been the 47th President of the United States for a few days, but has already launched several executive orders. Quite a few of them will also directly affect the shipping industry. 

In many circles in the USA, Donald Trump is being hailed as a “saviour” who is supposed to revive the economy. Tech billionaires are courting and advising him, while his second term in office is being viewed critically, particularly in Europe. No sooner had he sworn an oath on the Bible than the old and new president began his work – and reversed many of the measures implemented by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. To this end, he signed numerous executive orders that had already been drafted in advance and only needed his “go”. The following aspects are particularly relevant for shipping:

Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement

Trump has decided to withdraw the USA from the Paris Climate Agreement. This puts the country in the company of countries such as Iran, Yemen and Libya, which also reject the targets for curbing global warming.

This is not surprising – Trump is a well-known denier of man-made climate change and already initiated the withdrawal of the USA from the agreement during his first term of office. Biden has since reversed this step.

In doing so, Trump is also indirectly rejecting the goals of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which is aligned with the agreement and aims to achieve climate-neutral shipping by 2050. To this end, interim targets have been formulated to gradually reduce the industry’s emissions.

No funding for wind power

In the past, Donald Trump has repeatedly undermined the importance of wind power for the energy transition and announced that he would stop funding for this sector. Current projects will, in all likelihood, be completed, but new tenders for offshore wind farms, for example, are unlikely under his rule.

The USA is not only losing out on an important source of renewable energy (in the last four years, plants with a capacity of 19 GW have been approved), but is also diminishing the states’ already limited attractiveness for foreign offshore companies due to the Jones Act.

Continuation of the Jones Act and tariffs

The Jones Act, which was passed in 1920, stipulates that ships operating in the US domestic market must meet the following criteria: They must have been built in the USA, be owned by American companies and sail with an American crew.

This protectionist law significantly restricts the competitiveness of the states – not only in maritime logistics (the Jones Act is one of the reasons why many foodstuffs are extremely expensive in Hawaii, for example), but also in wind power. Offshore companies, often based in Europe, first have to set up American subcontractors in order to be able to penetrate this market at all. Under Trump’s “America First” policy, it is unlikely that the Jones Act will end in the near future.

Trump’s isolationist policy also provides for tariffs on products from abroad – which has already led to a rift with neighboring Canada. There was talk of tariffs of 20% in advance. German car manufacturers, for whom the USA is one of the most important sales markets, would be particularly hard hit.

The Panama Canal and the Gulf of America

Even before his inauguration, Trump railed against the “unfair” treatment of American ships on the Panama Canal and announced his intention to return the waterway to US ownership. The canal has been owned by the country of Panama since the turn of the millennium and is operated by its own authority.

Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino has already defended himself on Platform X and replied that the canal is not up for negotiation. Trump had also made similarly crude comments about the possible incorporation of Greenland and even Canada, which he referred to as the “51st state”. He also announced his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”.

Related Articles

Following the temporary cessation of attacks by the Houthi rebels, oil managers are in favor...

FSG is now officially part of the Heinrich Rönner Group. A successful new start is...

HMM, the eighth largest container shipping company in the world, made a profit of 2.6...

Following the temporary cessation of attacks by the Houthi rebels, oil managers are in favor...

FSG is now officially part of the Heinrich Rönner Group. A successful new start is...

HMM, the eighth largest container shipping company in the world, made a profit of 2.6...

hansa-newsletter-logo

Get an overview of the week’s most important news directly to you inbox:

Copyright: © The White House

Caption: Donald Trump, 45th and 47th President of the USA (© The White House)