On March 12 local time, five major labor unions, including the United Steelworkers (USW), filed a petition formally asking the Biden administration to open a trade investigation into China's "unreasonable and discriminatory" practices in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries.

    The 126-page petition claims that over the past two decades, the Chinese government has used a series of "non-market policies" to dominate global transport and logistics networks and is using the commercial shipbuilding industry to dominate every aspect of global trade, "stifling" all competitors and threatening US "national security."

    The petition lays out what it calls the Chinese government's "unfair" support for its shipbuilding industry, including state bank loans and tax incentives, and raises what it calls "national security concerns" about LOGINK, China's public information platform for Transport and logistics, which aggregates supply chain logistics data.

    The petition was filed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the United States Trade Representative to initiate investigations into "unreasonable or unfair trade practices" in other countries and to recommend that the president impose unilateral sanctions upon completion of the investigation. In 2018, the Trump administration also launched a "Section 301 investigation" based on this regulation, imposing massive and high tariffs on imports from China.

    The Financial Times pointed out on the 12th that in the past few decades, the US shipbuilding industry has fallen into decline. In 1975, the U.S. shipbuilding industry ranked first in the world in terms of capacity; Today, nearly 50 years later, the United States produces less than 1% of the world's commercial ships and has fallen to 19th place in the global ranking. Meanwhile, over the past two decades, China has produced three times as many ocean-going ships as the United States. Last year, China produced more than 1,000 ocean-going ships, while the United States produced just 10.

    China Shipbuilding Industry Association data show that from January to December 2023, China's shipbuilding completions, new orders, and hand-held orders accounted for 50.2%, 66.6% and 55% of the global total in terms of deadweight tons, respectively, and the three indicators ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years. China's shipbuilding products gradually cover all ship types in the market, accounting for more than 40% of the international market share, and the annual revenue of the industry exceeds 500 billion yuan.

    According to a 2022 study by the US Naval War College, Chinese companies own or operate one or more terminals at 96 overseas ports, 36 of which rank among the top 100 in the world for container throughput. Much of the shipping industry's equipment also comes from China, with state-owned Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) supplying 70 percent of the world's ship-to-shore cargo cranes.

    The Financial Times believes that the Biden administration's choice on this issue and the Chinese response will largely determine the future economic and political landscape of the world. "History proves that, in the long run, there has never been a naval power that was not a maritime power, a commercial shipbuilding and global shipping power," Toro wrote in a speech at Harvard's Kennedy School last September.