The White House on February 13 published America's Maritime Action Plan, the interagency blueprint ordered by Executive Order 14269, Restoring America's Maritime Dominance, of April 2025. Signed out by National Security Adviser Marco Rubio and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, the document arrives roughly 100 days past the executive order's 210-day deadline.
It is the first comprehensive US national maritime strategy in a generation, and its flagship measure reaches far beyond the shipyards. The plan proposes a universal infrastructure and security fee on every foreign-built commercial vessel calling at US ports, set at 1 cent per kilogram of cargo. Industry modeling puts the baseline yield at about $66 billion over ten years, with scenarios running as high as 25 cents per kilogram, or roughly $1.5 trillion.
A fee on nearly every ship in US trade
The per-kilogram levy would feed a new Maritime Security Trust Fund, designed as a mandatory funding stream insulated from annual appropriations. Its reach is what sets it apart. The USTR Section 301 port fees were aimed at Chinese-built and Chinese-operated tonnage; a charge on all foreign-built vessels would touch essentially the entire fleet serving US commerce, because the United States today builds less than 1 percent of global commercial tonnage and counts only eight shipyards capable of building large oceangoing ships, figures set out in the plan itself. At 1 cent per kilogram, the fee works out to $10 per metric ton of cargo, a cost carriers would inevitably push into freight rates on US trades.
Zones, mariners and a bridge strategy
Beyond the fee, the plan calls for up to 100 Maritime Prosperity Zones, ten-year designations modeled on Opportunity Zones and spread across the coasts, the Gulf, the Great Lakes, inland waterways, Alaska, Hawaii and the territories. On workforce, it expands the Military-to-Mariner pipeline and proposes a tax exclusion, styled on the foreign earned income exclusion, for US mariners sailing international routes. The industrial core is a bridge strategy: allied shipbuilders would construct initial hulls abroad while investing in US yards, with later hulls migrating to American ways. A Strategic Commercial Fleet of US-flag vessels in international trade, expanded cargo preference and multiyear, multivessel contracting round out the demand side.
An opening bid aimed at Congress
For all its sweep, the plan sets no hard deadlines, and its legislative proposals will follow the FY2027 budget request. It is built to complement the SHIPS for America Act and the Building Ships in America Act, with implementation spread across MARAD, the Transportation Department, OMB, Commerce, DHS and USTR. Law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has published a client briefing on the release; the practical point for owners is that almost nothing in the document takes effect without Congress.
Labor reaction was warm, with MEBA President Adam Vokac welcoming the plan. The political framing was blunter still. "We want them built in America," President Trump said of the ships. Separately on the same day, DP World chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem resigned in connection with the Epstein files disclosures, an unrelated jolt for the ports sector.
The road ahead
The fee is the piece to watch. Whether it survives contact with Congress at 1 cent per kilogram, at zero, or somewhere higher will determine whether the trust fund is real money or an aspiration. Shippers and carriers will start modeling pass-through now: a levy priced by weight falls hardest on heavy, low-value cargoes, and the lobbying will sort along exactly that line. The bridge strategy invites allied yards into the program's early years, so expect jockeying over which foreign builders qualify and on what terms. The FY2027 budget request then becomes the first hard test of whether the zones, the Strategic Commercial Fleet and the mariner incentives are funded or merely described. Maritime blueprints in Washington have a long history of outliving their momentum; this one at least arrives with a revenue engine attached.
As Editor in Chief of The Maritime, I lead content development, interviews, and digital storytelling across our multimedia maritime platform. With over 10 years of experience in the maritime industry, I create and publish in-depth stories and video features that highlight key players, emerging trends, and operational realities across global shipping. Before launching The Maritime, I worked as a Vessel Operator at Imza Marine A.S., gaining hands-on commercial shipping and voyage operations experience. I also served as Marketing Communications Specialist at Gimas Ship Supply & Services, where I managed corporate communication, digital strategy, and industry outreach for shipowners and maritime clients. I hold a Master’s degree in Maritime Transportation Management from Istanbul Technical University and a Master’s degree in Publishing from Marmara University. My work is driven by the belief that the maritime world deserves strong, informed, and accessible media representation. I am committed to sharing the stories of maritime professionals and contributing to the sector’s visibility, knowledge exchange, and future development.
