Restoring the Waves: America’s Bold Blueprint for a New Maritime Golden Age

Key Takeaways

• America’s shipbuilding industry has fallen into steep decline, producing less than 1% of global commercial vessels and leaving the country heavily reliant on foreign-built, foreign-crewed ships for its trade.

• China’s overwhelming dominance in shipbuilding capacity, subsidies and infrastructure has exposed the scale of the gap, pushing maritime power back to the forefront of U.S. strategic competition.

• The Maritime Action Plan aims to rebuild sovereign capability through stronger Jones Act protections, expanded cargo-preference rules, and the creation of a Strategic Commercial Fleet.

• Long-term revival will be driven by dedicated funding, workforce and training expansion, procurement reform and investment in autonomous and next-generation maritime technologies.

The United States is pivoting toward an aggressive and transformative maritime strategy because its domestic shipbuilding capacity has reached a critical point of decay, currently constructing less than one per cent of the world's commercial ships. For decades, the nation has suffered from a lack of strategic focus and a degradation of federal investment in the maritime industrial base (MIB), which has driven up costs and discouraged the operation of ships under the American flag. This decline has left the country reliant on foreign-built and foreign-crewed vessels to ferry nearly all of its international trade. This is a situation that the Trump administration views as a significant risk to both national security and economic prosperity.

The scale of this challenge is most apparent when compared to the People's Republic of China, which has rapidly expanded its market share to dominate global shipbuilding, logistics, and maritime infrastructure. While the United States operates only eight active shipbuilding yards capable of building large ocean-going vessels, its strategic competitors dominate the market and build ships at a fraction of the cost. In recent years, a single Chinese firm has built more commercial vessels by tonnage than the entire U.S. industry has produced since the end of the Second World War. The Maritime Action Plan (MAP) specifically addresses this disparity by seeking to reconstitute the means to build and maintain ships domestically, ensuring that the United States is no longer dependent on unreliable suppliers during times of conflict or global crisis.

Key Point	United States (2025/2026)	China (2025/2026)
Global Market Share	~0.1% to 1%	~53% to 56%
Shipbuilding Capacity	Severely limited; 8 active yards	Over 230 times the US capacity
Production Speed	Slowed by "stop-start" funding	Massive scale; delivery slots extend to 2029
State Support	Historically fragmented/neglected	$132B in subsidies (2010–2018)

The Statutory Shield: Strengthening the Jones Act

Central to this effort is the preservation and strengthening of the framework established by the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly known as the Jones Act. This law serves as the lynchpin for a merchant marine that is owned, built, and crewed by Americans, ensuring that domestic waterborne commerce remains under sovereign control. The MAP aims to strengthen the "U.S.-built" definition over time to encourage the growth of domestic supplier capacity and ensure that critical ship materials are increasingly made in America. By creating market signals such as restructured operating subsidies and guaranteed cargo commitments, the government hopes to trigger private investment in a new generation of U.S.-built and U.S.-flagged commercial vessels.

To further protect the industrial base, the administration is moving to expand cargo preference requirements. Currently, civilian government agencies are required to move 50 per cent of their cargo on U.S.-flagged vessels; the new plan proposes increasing this percentage to strengthen the economic foundation of the domestic fleet. This shift is intended to ensure that sufficient tonnage and crew availability are maintained for rapid mobilisation in a crisis.

Rebuilding the Workforce and Infrastructure

The strategy also addresses the dwindling pool of American mariners and the shrinking fleet of internationally trading U.S.-flagged ships. The administration intends to establish a Strategic Commercial Fleet (SCF) of active, privately owned U.S.-built vessels to provide the depth and redundancy required for military logistics and to maintain the flow of goods to the economy during emergencies. By integrating modernised training at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) and providing new financial incentives for mariner recruitment through the Mariner Incentive Program (MIP), the plan seeks to align the workforce with the goal of restoring maritime dominance.

To fund these massive undertakings, the plan introduces the Maritime Security Trust Fund (MSTF). Unlike typical programs reliant on annual appropriations, the MSTF would provide a dedicated, mandatory funding stream derived from fees on foreign-built vessels and land port imports. For instance, a "Universal Fee" of one cent per kilogram on foreign-built ships calling at U.S. ports is estimated to yield roughly $66 billion over ten years. This is complemented by a proposed Land Port Maintenance Tax (Fee) of 0.125 per cent on the value of merchandise entering through land borders, designed to level the playing field between seaports and land ports.

Regulatory Overhaul and Technological Innovation

Recognising that "cumbersome" government processes have historically driven up costs, the MAP commits to significant deregulation and procurement reform. Under the guidance of Executive Order 14275, the administration is undertaking a revolutionary overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to favour commercial off-the-shelf solutions and eliminate nearly all non-statutory regulations. This involves streamlining acquisition frameworks, such as updating the Coast Guard's Major System Acquisition Manuals, to reduce unnecessary delays and manage risk more effectively.

The plan also places a heavy emphasis on emerging technologies, specifically Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS). These systems are cheaper to build and can be distributed across a host of smaller commercial shipyards throughout the country’s interior and coasts. By standardising RAS hull designs and designating areas for safe, expedited testing, the United States aims to lead the global race for maritime innovation.

Legislative Momentum and Global Diplomacy

Restoring America’s maritime dominance is a whole-of-government undertaking that requires robust support from Congress and international allies. Significant legislation has already been introduced, including the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act of 2025 and the Building Ships in America Act of 2025. These bills propose actions such as establishing a 25 per cent investment tax credit for shipyards and creating Maritime Prosperity Zones (MPZs) to catalyse private capital in waterfront communities.

On the global stage, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is leveraging economic diplomacy through the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) framework. This includes securing investment commitments from allies—such as the $150 billion already pledged for American shipbuilding—and continuing investigations into unfair practices by strategic competitors.

Through the execution of this plan, the Trump administration hopes that it will re-establish America's position as a global maritime power, ensuring that the nation can defend its interests and ferry its trade on its own terms. As the administration concludes, "We want them built in America".