Hong Kong won’t impose special port fees despite US-China spat

Hong Kong will not start imposing port fees targeting individual countries, despite China and the US charging special levies aimed at one another’s ships.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region “does not impose, nor does it have any plans to impose, special port fees on vessels owned or operated by individual countries or regions, or on vessels flying specific flags”, a government spokesperson said in response to questions from Bloomberg News.

Earlier this week, China began charging special port fees on US ships, escalating a months-long dispute in which Washington has targeted Beijing for its maritime and trade dominance.

On Tuesday, Beijing’s Ministry of Transport said that before a vessel arrives at a Chinese port, shipowners or their agents would have to inform authorities of the ship’s ownership. China had said that beginning October 14, Beijing would start charging 400 Chinese yuan (S$73) per net tonne on US ships that enter Chinese ports. The Trump administration’s levies on Chinese ships started the same day.

Hong Kong, which has one of the world’s busiest deepwater ports, has operated under a “one country, two systems” framework through its mini-constitution since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The Hong Kong government’s decision not to enact country-specific port duties is based on the Chinese territory running a different customs regime from the mainland, the spokesperson said.

“Hong Kong will continue to be a sole separate customs territory apart from other parts of our country, and maintain the status of a free port without the imposition of any tariff,” the spokesperson said. BLOOMBERG