(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration wants a sweeping government-wide overhaul of the U.S. commercial and military maritime sectors in an effort to catch up to China’s unrivaled shipbuilding capacity, according to draft documents obtained by USNI News.
The draft of an executive order, dated Feb. 27, calls on administration officials to create a maritime action plan over the next six months to revamp the American maritime industry.
“The United States has always been a maritime nation, but today China’s shipbuilding sector has established a position of dominance in the global market through unfair non-market practices, creating over 200 times the capacity of the U.S. shipbuilding industry,” reads a draft White House fact sheet accompanying the draft order.
The order will create a new maritime industrial base office within the White House’s National Security Council to lead the effort. Trump announced the new office on March 4 during a joint address to Congress.
“To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding. And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs,” Trump said.
“We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.”
Multiple cabinet secretaries – including the U.S. trade representative and the heads of the departments of Defense, Commerce, State, Transportation and Homeland Security – have six months from when the executive order is signed to provide Trump with the maritime action plan, according to the draft.
“We applaud the creation of the White House Office of Shipbuilding, and the entire shipyard industrial base not only stands at the ready to work with the new Office of U.S. Shipbuilding, but we are also ready to answer the call to design and build America’s commercial and military fleets,” said Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America. “By fully utilizing the existing domestic shipyard capacity, the shipyard industrial base can meet the growing demands of national defense, restore American competitiveness, and create thousands of skilled jobs.”
