Colin Cooke, president and CEO of the Canadian Marine Industries and Shipbuilding Association (CMISA), has sent a strong message to Ottawa, demanding that Canada’s Justin Trudeau government impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese-built ships.
This comes on the heels of Canada’s announcement of a 100 percent surtax on Chinese-made electric vehicles, which CMISA hopes to extend to the Chinese shipbuilding industry.
“However, the same decisive measures must be extended to Chinese-built ships, which present an even greater strategic and ethical threat,” says Colin Cooke president and CEO, CMISA.
“China’s shipbuilding industry operates under the doctrine of Civil-Military Fusion whereby commercial ship exports are subsidized to strengthen the country’s military capabilities,” Cooke added.
In response, CMISA has called for a 100% surtax on all Chinese-built ships imported into Canada and for an explicit prohibition on the purchase or chartering of Chinese-built ships by any government entity.
CMISA’s call specifically references Marine Atlantic, a Canadian government-owned and government-funded organization. The company recently chartered a Chinese shipyard-built ferry from Sweden’s Stena Group for a five-year period to be deployed along the Atlantic coast of Canada, with Marine Atlantic holding the right to purchase the ferry.
As a result, the organization accused Marine Atlantic of using this method to avoid “public scrutiny and ethical issues” and called on the company to use its five-year charter to design and build a domestically produced ship in partnership with Canadian industry rather than ultimately choosing to purchase a Chinese-built ship.
“It is imperative that the government takes these steps to protect Canadian industries, uphold national security, and ensure that our economic policies are consistent with our commitment to human rights and ethical business practices,” Cooke wrote in a statement.
Clarkson data show that so far this year, Chinese shipbuilders accounted for more than 60% of new ship orders, South Korean shipbuilders accounted for less than 30%, Japanese shipbuilders ranked third. As the global competitiveness of China’s shipbuilding industry to further enhance the “jealousy” behavior of Western countries is becoming more and more obvious.
U.S. local time on March 12, the United States Steelworkers (USW) and other five major trade union organizations filed a petition formally requesting that the Biden administration launch a trade investigation into China’s “unreasonable and discriminatory” practices in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries.
On April 17, U.S. local time, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced the launch of a 301 investigation into China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries.
In response, China strongly opposes and is firmly against this move. We urge the U.S. to respect the facts and multilateral rules, immediately stop its wrongful practices and return to the rules-based multilateral trading system. China will closely follow the progress of the 301 investigation and will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its rights and interests.
In addition to the U.S. and Canada, earlier this year, SEA Europe, which represents Europe’s maritime technology industry, including shipbuilders and maritime equipment manufacturers, called on European policymakers to take action to develop a comprehensive European maritime industry strategy in a meeting with members of the European Parliament.