The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A LEADING shipping company supplying The Bahamas has joined the Caribbean’s private sector in urging that proposed US sanctions on Chinese-made vessels be “terminated altogether” or the region given a permanent exemption.

Tim Martin, president and chief executive of Tropical Shipping, which enjoys a significant share of The Bahamas’ cargo and freight market, made the call in an October 30, 2026, letter responding to the latest public consultation launched by the US Trade Representative’s office over the Trump administration’s plans to combat Chinese ship-building dominance.

The initial plan, unveiled last year, mulled imposing a $1m per port call fee on Chinese-made ships, which threatened to increase the cost of goods shipped from Florida to The Bahamas and other import-dependent Caribbean nations by between 50-60 percent. That would have sent already-high inflation and cost of living pressures soaring even further.

The US government, facing major push back from American exporters and shipping companies such as Tropical, ultimately modified and deferred its plans by effectively exempting The Bahamas and the Caribbean. Smaller vessels, and those that travel relatively short distances of less than 2,000 nautical miles to service the region, were carved out of the Chinese-made ship sanctions.

However, the US Trade Representative’s Office deferred implementation of its revised initiative until next Monday, November 9, 2026, and is now seeking feedback on plans to extend this suspension for two months until the New Year and January 9, 2026. The Caribbean’s private sector is urging that the “exemptions which have shielded Caribbean short-sea shipping” be confirmed and “made permanent”.

Mr Martin, in his October 30, 2026, letter confirmed that the Trump administration’s action had allowed Tropical Shipping to maintain uninterrupted service to The Bahamas and Caribbean without having to significantly hike freight tariff rates.

“These targeted coverage provisions allow Tropical to continue to operate its fleet of 19 shallow draft vessels, including three vessels that were built in the US, ranging in size from 145 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) to 1,100 TEU capacity, and serving over 30 ports throughout the Caribbean basin,” the Tropical Shipping chief said.

“Tropical continues to maintain that, if.. fees were implemented as originally proposed and without the targeted coverage provisions, they would have a significant, disproportionate and negative impact on American-owned shipping carriers like Tropical and the US exporters that rely on such carriers.”

Describing the Caribbean, Central and South America regions as a combined $100bn-plus market for US exporters, Mr Martin added: “A fee of the magnitude that was originally proposed by the US Trade Representative, without targeted coverage provisions, would have disproportionately impacted American shipping companies like Tropical, operating smaller or specialty vessels on short sea shipping routes, and would have been cost prohibitive for the thousands of US exporters that rely on Tropical and similar carriers to transport American products to Caribbean basin markets.

“If anything, Tropical encourages the US Trade Representative to stabilise the international shipping market by terminating the action all together. This would have the effect of stabilising freight rates and creating more certainty in the shipping market for US companies like Tropical and the US exporters that rely on them.

“Nevertheless, if suspension of the action is lifted, Tropical requests that the US Trade Representative impose the action as implemented with targeted coverage provisions for US-owned companies' vessels, smaller-sized vessels and vessels engaged in short-sea shipping.”

Mr Martin’s call was echoed by Dr Patrick Antoine, chief executive of the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO), said to represent 6,250 firms across the Caribbean, who backed the Chinese-made ship sanctions suspension for a further two months and called for the exemption for The Bahamas and wider region to be “made permanent”.

Describing the shipping market that serves the region as “the most cost-fragile segment of the maritime economy”, Dr Antoine wrote on October 29, 2026: “A measure calibrated for the world’s largest trades can therefore produce, in the Caribbean, effects out of all proportion to its purpose.

“On the CPSO’s estimates, the per-entry fee first proposed in February 2025, in the order of $1m per port call, would have added 50 percent to 60 percent to the freight cost of goods moving between Florida and CARICOM ports, carried on vessels for which no US-built replacement exists on any foreseeable timeline.

“The targeted-coverage exemptions adopted on April 17, 2025, recognised this. The CPSO asks that this recognition endure…. Applied to Caribbean short-sea shipping, the action would disrupt US-CARICOM supply chains built up over three decades and reflected in that $30.1bn of two-way trade. The US also runs recurring annual surpluses with CARICOM in services traded.

“The CPSO requests that the US Trade Representative confirm, in any notice that resumes the action, that the targeted-coverage exemptions, as clarified by the notice of October 16, 2025, remain in full force so that the thousands of US and CARICOM private sector firms which rely on efficient maritime services to move goods between CARICOM and the US may continue to plan on a settled basis.”

And Dr Antoine continued: “The benefit of the exemptions is best measured by what did not happen. Between April 17, 2025, and the suspension of the action on November 10, 2025, and since, no liner service to a CARICOM port was withdrawn and, to the CPSO’s knowledge, no carrier serving the region levied a Section 301 surcharge on Caribbean trades, in contrast to the deep-sea trades, where some carriers announced fee recovery surcharges ahead of the October 14, 2025, effective date.

“The five lines that provide CARICOM’s consistent service, several operating China-built tonnage, held their schedules, frequencies and rotations. For CARICOM states consistently served by only two, and at most three liners, continuity of service is the difference between stocked and empty shelves.”