America’s Maritime Action Plan

10 March 2026

By Beatrice Lodi, Joseph F. Carilli, Jr.

In future related web posts, we will discuss in greater detail the SHIPS for America Act of 2025, and its potential impact on foreign-built and foreign-owned vessels trading in the United States. In addition, we will address the impact of USTR investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act 1974, as well as how Section 301 functions, especially in light of the Executive’s reaction to U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (if you want to learn more about this decision, listen to the recent Case by Case podcast located here).

America’s Maritime Action Plan

In February 2026, the Executive Office of the President of the United States published America’s Maritime Action Plan (“Plan”). The Plan is a clarion call to revive the U.S. shipbuilding industry and thereby to revitalize U.S. maritime power, industry, and global dominance by providing strategy and specific actions to restore and create sustained resilience for the U.S. maritime industry.

The Plan builds on four pillars, which are described below: Pillar I: Rebuild U.S. Shipbuilding Capacity and Capabilities; Pillar II: Reform Workforce Education and Training; Pillar III: Protect the Maritime Industrial Base; and Pillar IV: National Security, Economic Security, and Industrial Resilience.

Pillar I: Rebuild U.S. Shipbuilding Capacity and Capabilities

This pillar focuses on increasing and rebuilding U.S. shipbuilding capacity, which it identifies as critical to restoring the U.S.’s maritime strength. To rebuild shipbuilding capacity, the Plan lays out the urgent steps that need to be taken to accelerate shipyard modernization, broaden supply-chain diversification and trigger the growth of a fleet of ships built in the United States and operated under the U.S. flag, including:

(1) Increasing domestic shipbuilding capacity
The Plan recommends multiyear contracting, strategic capital outlays, supplier and workforce investments, modular production, and digital engineering modernization to achieve a more competitive, resilient, and productive shipbuilding industrial base to meet national security and economic objectives.

(2) Incentivizing investment in U.S. shipyards
To promote growth, the Plan proposes expansion of existing federal and state economic development incentives and the creation of a Ship Building Financial Incentives Program to encourage shipbuilders from allied nations to invest in the U.S. shipbuilding industry. Monetary incentives include credits, rebates, tax exemptions, direct grants, financing, and aid for infrastructure and site development, loan support and funding for on-the-job training and employment programs. The primary vehicle for these incentives will be the creation of bilateral or multilateral Purchasing Power Parities.

In particular, the Plan recommends the introduction of a universal fee on foreign‑built commercial vessels from any nation entering U.S. ports. This universal infrastructure or security fee on foreign‑built vessels calling at U.S. ports will be assessed in relation to the weight of the imported tonnage arriving on the vessel. The Plan forecasts that a fee of one (1) cent per kilogram on foreign‑built vessels would yield around USD 66 billion in revenue over the course of ten years and a fee of twenty‑five (25) cents per kilogram would yield close to USD 1.5 trillion in revenue. As foreign‑built vessels benefit from U.S. market access, the rationale behind this policy action is that it ensures that foreign‑built vessels contribute to the revitalization of U.S.’s maritime capabilities.

(3) Establishing Maritime Prosperity Zones to catalyze shipbuilding investment and workforce growth
To strengthen the U.S. maritime industry, the Plan recommends a strategic infusion of capital into the communities that sustain maritime readiness, to be achieved through the establishment and extension of these zones.

(4) Addressing supply and demand issues
To address gaps in supply of, and demand for, U.S. maritime industry capabilities, the Plan recommends expanding and modernizing existing federal financing and tax incentive programs. The Plan also recommends, inter alia, multiyear participation agreements and guaranteed cargo or procurement commitments to trigger private investment as well as regulatory reform to favor domestic shipbuilding and repairs, for example by streamlining reflagging and equivalency reviews or reducing retrofit compliance frictions.

Pillar II: Reform Workforce Education and Training

This pillar focuses on growing a capable and credentialed maritime workforce, which has been identified as critical to supporting the expansion of a U.S. flagged fleet and ensuring long-term resilience of the Maritime Industrial Base. To reform maritime workforce and education, the Plan recommends the following policy actions:

(1) Expanding mariner training and education.
To rebuild the mariner pipeline, the Plan recommends expanding training and education programs across Federal agencies and maritime institutions.

(2) Modernizing the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
To address significant deferred maintenance backlogs and urgent modernization needs, the Plan recommends allocation of funding for tackling urgent deferred maintenance issues, making essential infrastructural improvements, and enhancing facilities to accommodate future growth.

(3) Increasing support for State Maritime Academies.
To enhance training capacity nationwide, the Administration recommends reviewing and strengthening federal support for State maritime academies, including funding for Student Incentive Payments, operational assistance, training vessels, and shore‑side infrastructure.

(4) Enhancing training capabilities.
To expand the U.S.’s capacity to meet growing maritime needs, the Plan recommends investing in existing programs and scalable workforce initiatives that can assist in closing the labor and skills gap and will modernize the training pipeline to build up industrial capacity.

Pillar III: Protect the Maritime Industrial Base

This pillar focuses on effective trade policy, customs enforcement, allied coordination, and Federal acquisition reform, which have been identified as critical to generating predictable demand for U.S.-built and U.S.-flagged vessels and protecting the Maritime Industrial Base. To protect the Maritime Industrial Base and generate market signals for demand of U.S.-built and U.S.-flagged vessels, the Plan lays out the urgent steps that need to be taken in this regard, including:

(1) Strengthening requirements for shipping government-impelled and commercial cargoes on U.S.-flagged vessels.
The Plan recommends imposing requirements on high-volume exporting economies to transport gradually increasing percentages of U.S.-bound cargo on qualifying U.S. vessels. The Plan also recommends gradually increasing the percentage of civilian U.S. government agency cargoes moving on U.S.-flagged vessels and immediate reforms to the Cargo Preference Three-Year Eligibility Rule[1].

(2) Establishing a Land Port Maintenance Tax.
To enhance the competitiveness of U.S. maritime ports and reduce existing disparities in infrastructure funding, the Plan recommends the introduction of a tax directly targeting land ports, comparable to the Harbor Maintenance Tax. The introduction of this fee is aimed at leveling the playing field between land ports and seaports by disincentivizing shippers to route cargo through land borders.

(3) Streamlining and improving government procurement efficiency.
To reduce costs, stabilize the industrial base and provide the predictability needed to retain skilled labor and justify capital investment, the Plan recommends adopting multiyear and multivessel procurement strategies. It further calls for simplifying reporting and inspection requirements to reduce administrative burdens and for developing more accurate and forward‑looking forecasts of shipbuilding demand to enhance planning certainty. To streamline acquisition processes, the Plan recommends expanding the use of the Vessel Construction Manager model, whereby a single entity is contracted to manage the entire shipbuilding process on behalf of the shipowner. Finally, the Plan recommends the use of performance‑based contractual incentives such as rewards for timely delivery, cost-saving innovations and robust lifecycle support as well as greater adoption of emerging technologies, including AI and automation, to enhance efficiency across the entire vessel procurement lifecycle, from design and acquisition to supply chain management, construction, and maintenance.

(4) U.S. Trade Representative’s (“USTR”) investigation of the PRC.
Following the USTR’s investigation into the PRC’s targeting of the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance under Section 301 of the Trade Act 1974, as amended (“Trade Act”), the USTR concluded that certain PRC acts, policies, and practices burden or restrict U.S. commerce and are actionable, resulting in responsive trade measures and subsequent diplomatic engagement. On 16 January 2025, the USTR released a public report (the “Report”) on its investigation of PRC’s acts, policies, and practices targeting the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance under Section 301 of the Trade Act. The Report concluded that the PRC’s targeting of the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance is unreasonable, burdens or restricts U.S. commerce, and is thus actionable. On 17 April 2025, the USTR took responsive action under Section 301 of the Trade Act, which was suspended for one year from November 2025 after the United States and PRC reached a deal on economic and trade relations. The Plan states that the United States will consult with the PRC on shipbuilding capacity issues and continue its historic cooperation with the Republic of Korea and Japan on revitalizing U.S. shipbuilding.

Pillar IV: National Security, Economic Security, and Industrial Resilience

This pillar focuses on a strong maritime industry, which has been identified as critical to strengthening the U.S. capacity to sustain military logistics, secure vital trading routes, compete in the global maritime economy, maintain continuous and efficient flow of goods in domestic and international commerce, and, in times of conflict, support a wartime economy. To strengthen national security, economic security and resilience of the maritime sector, the MAP recommends the following policy actions:

(1) Increase the security and resilience of the Maritime Industrial Base.
The Plan recommends increasing domestic capacity for critical components and reducing sole-source dependencies by developing domestic capacity through expansion of supplier development investments and vendor-qualification support. The Plan also recommends embracing innovation, technology, automation and industrial modernization by adopting and integrating emerging technologies in shipbuilding production and improving supply chain resilience by purposefully diversifying the supply chain. Finally, the Plan recommends defining clear economic security metrics, demand signals, and requirements to ensure continuous flow of goods during a crisis and to function as benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of Maritime Industrial Base programs.

(2) Increase the fleet of U.S.-built and U.S.-flagged commercial vessels trading internationally.
To provide the depth and capacity required to sustain military logistics around the globe and ensure the continuous flow of goods to the U.S. economy in times of conflict, the Administration recommends the establishment of a Strategic Commercial Fleet (“SCF”) benefiting from financial support for both construction and operation and the funding of the Maritime and Tanker Security Programs to authorized levels to directly increase the number of commercial vessels operating under a U.S. flag.

(3) Establish the Maritime Security Trust Fund (the “MSTF”).
The Plan recommends the establishment of the MSTF to create a dedicated, mandatory funding stream to support programs strengthening the U.S. maritime industry, ensuring consistent, long-term investment in U.S. shipbuilding capacity, fleet expansion, and maritime workforce.

(4) Prioritize robotic and autonomous systems (“RAS”).
The Plan recognizes that RAS will play a central role in future conflicts. The U.S. Navy is working to incorporate RAS into the U.S.-built fleet, and the Plan recommends such efforts to be accelerated, replicated and institutionalized at scale. The Plan also recommends designating specific areas for RAS streamlined testing, as well as the adoption of modular and unmanned capabilities to improve cost efficiency and encourage innovation in the industrial base.

(5) Arctic waterways security strategy.
The Plan recognizes that Arctic waterways provide opportunities for the U.S. maritime industry, while posing great risks, threats, and challenges to trade and national security interests. Thus, the Plan recommends enhancing U.S. maritime presence in the Arctic region, strengthening information sharing networks and data collection and analytical tool capabilities, and enhancing satellite communication infrastructure through commercial and military partnerships to improve tactical, strategic, and commercial communications. The Plan also recommends modernizing aging infrastructure in Alaska and Greenland and enhancing international and multilateral cooperation with the aim of protecting and furthering U.S. maritime interests.

Policy Implementation Beyond the Four Pillars

In addition to the four pillars, the Plan also addresses several deregulatory actions and outlines the implementation of potential legislative proposals aimed at strengthening the U.S. maritime industry.

The Plan states that deregulatory actions, including the elimination of outdated rules, streamlined compliance and clarified policies are critical to reducing unnecessary costs and burdens on industry participants, catalyzing innovation, and fostering a more efficient maritime sector. The Plan’s recommendations for deregulatory actions are guided by three objectives: (i) eliminating outdated, redundant, or unnecessary regulations that impose undue burdens on the maritime industry; (ii) streamlining the compliance process to expedite permitting, inspections, and data handling; and (iii) clarifying regulations and policies to reduce ambiguity and ensure existing regulations are applied consistently.

The Plan states that the adoption of legislation that seeks to address the vulnerabilities of the domestic maritime industry is critical to restoring the U.S. maritime dominance. The Plan indicates that the Executive is compiling a package of legislative proposals aimed at providing support to the maritime industry and at ensuring the growth and prosperity of the sector. The proposals are aimed at: (i) enforcing the payment of fees at U.S. borders and preventing circumvention of certain charges by importing through land borders as opposed to maritime ports; (ii) creating a MSTF that will serve as a reliable funding source for consistent support of programs detailed in the Plan; (iii) providing for the creation and improvement of programs that will incentivize private investment in commercial shipbuilding, commercial shipyards, and repair facilities; (iv) organizing MPZs to incentivize and facilitate domestic and allied investment in U.S. maritime industries and waterfront communities; (v) establishing national maritime scholarships and other opportunities to better facilitate the training of students; and (vi) ensuring adequate cubed footage and gross tonnage of U.S.-flagged commercial vessels to be called on in times of crisis through incentives that will grow the fleet of U.S.-built, crewed and flagged vessels participating in international trade.

Importantly, prior to the release of the Plan, Congress had introduced legislation that addresses strengthening the U.S. commercial maritime industry. On April 30, 2025 and May 1, 2025, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives introduced the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act of 2025, also known as the SHIPS for America Act of 2025 (S. 5141 and H.R. 3151, respectively) to support the national defense and economic security of the United States by supporting vessels, ports, and shipyards of the United States and the U.S. maritime workforce. The SHIPS for America Act of 2025 comprehensively addresses the pillars of the Plan and includes many of the legislative

[1] Under this rule, a vessel must generally be U.S.-flagged for at least three years before being eligible to transport certain government-impelled cargoes.