Ships, Fees, and Thieves: The New Maritime Chessboard

Season 5 of By Land and By Sea continues with a Captain’s Log edition—a fast, plain-language rundown of the biggest moves reshaping U.S. maritime policy and global shipping.

The maritime landscape is being reshaped through deliberate U.S. policy shifts targeting China's global port network, the United States implementing new vessel fees, WSC addressing container ship safety, expanding mariner credentialing, and combating cargo theft.

• US mounting ambitious maritime strategy to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative port network, treating port access as national security
• New USTR Section 301 port fees starting October 14 will charge vessels built in China or operated by Chinese companies when calling at US ports
• World Shipping Council launched a cargo safety program using AI-powered screening to prevent container ship fires caused by misdeclared dangerous goods
• Coast Guard extended the sea service recency period from three to seven years, helping retain mariners who step away from sailing
• DOT seeking industry input on cargo theft through an October 20 Request for Information to address sophisticated criminal operations

🎧 Listen: Season 5, Episode 2 — Ships, Fees, and Thieves: The New Maritime Chessboard
👉 TheMaritimeProfessor.com/podcast

💡 Upcoming Live Webinar: Thursday, October 2 at 12:00 PM ET — USTR China 301 Port Fees. Register at TheMaritimeProfessor.com to learn who actually gets stuck with the bill—in plain language, no fine print.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Maritime Policy Updates
• 1:30 US Strategy Against China's Port Network
• 5:37 Breaking Down the USTR Port Fees
• 10:47 World Shipping Council's Cargo Safety Program
• 13:01 Coast Guard's Mariner Credential Reforms
• 21:21 DOT Tackling Cargo Theft Crisis
• 24:39 Upcoming Events and Future Topics

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Ready to go? You're listening to by Land and by Sea, powered by the Maritime Professor. Six big developments reshaping maritime policy and supply chains from China's Belt and Road ports to new US port fees, crane tariffs, mariner credential reforms, cargo theft protections and more. Welcome to my captain's log on by Land and by Sea. Hi, welcome back to by Land and by Sea, an attorney breaking down the weakened supply chain. Presented by the Maritime Professor. I'm Lauren Began, former FMC International Affairs Attorney. Presented by the Maritime Professor. I'm Lauren Began, former FMC International Affairs Attorney and founder of the Maritime Professor and Squall Strategies by Land and by Sea is your go-to resource for navigating the regulatory side of global ocean shipping and me, well, I'm your favorite maritime attorney. Right, I'm here to walk you through both ocean transport and surface transport topics in the wild world of supply chain. As always, the Guidance Service General for educational purposes only. It should not be construed to be legal advice, and there is no attorney-client privilege created by this video or this podcast. If you need an attorney, contact an attorney. This is Plain Language Maritime created so that anyone, not just lawyers and industry insiders, can understand what's happening in the world of shipping.

Speaker 1: 1:23

So let's dive into this Captain's Log edition because, as you know, ocean shipping rules the world. All right. Well, captain's Log number one US targets China global port network. What are we talking about here? Reuters reported that the US government is mounting its most ambitious maritime strategy since the 1970s, aimed at countering China's grip on global ports. Now, what I saw in this article there was a few new things, but it's kind of pulling together the conversation that we've been having about all these little deaths by a thousand, cuts, all these things that the US is now bolstering the US presence and bolstering the US strength on, but also is a little bit cutting away at some of China's grip on these larger maritime strength points for them. So this has been years in the making through China's Belt and Road Initiative. That was China's global infrastructure program launched in 2013. If you're not familiar, I suggest you maybe go take a look at it, see what this Belt and Road Initiative is all about. It's been going for what's that about? 12 years now.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Look, plain language here. The Belt and Road Initiative is China's global building project. They help countries finance and construct ports, railways and highways. But there's kind of a catch, is what it seems like. By footing the bill, china often gets long-term control over some of the infrastructure, or at least that's what it seems like, right? So it's like if the neighbor built you a driveway for free but then kind of keeps the keys to the gate for the next 40 years, or that's how it could be interpreted.

Speaker 1: 2:50

So in the article they talk about ports in Greece, sri Lanka and even the Panama Canal, where China has some interest, some stakes. Now that's leverage that China could potentially use. That's the fear to restrict or redirect global shipping flows in a crisis, right? So if something were to happen, potentially China could have control over these areas. That might be globally very important. So the US has been finding ways to get involved in those conversations, perhaps get involved in some of these port purchases. We saw that recently with the Panama Canal but they're treating port access as a national security issue and finding ways of trying to counteract perhaps some of this expansiveness, right? So if the world trade is a highway, china's been kind of buying the tollbooths. Essentially, right, the US wants to buy some of those back and at least make sure that allies own them so that it's not just one country across the world who kind of controls these tollbooths, if you will.

Speaker 1: 3:53

So the FMC angle here in the article talks a little bit about this the Federal Maritime Commission's choke points investigation. I did a whole course on this. Go check it out if you want to learn more about this choke points investigation. I anticipate that we're going to be seeing something about that choke points investigation again. It was an investigation where they were assessing seven different choke points and really anywhere else that commenters might have thoughts on across the entire globe and finding out if there were unfair or unreasonable practices associated with these choke points. Right, there were channels, there were seaways Panama Canal was on there, look, on paper. What they wanted to do was find out about the unreasonable and unfair practices that might be happening. But really, I mean, what's happening here is this is a global look at making sure that these tollbooths in our analogy of world trade aren't quietly tilted against either US interest, because that's where the FMC really is, kind of the spokesperson for, not spokesperson the referee for. Just generally, ocean trade can continue to move freely and without unreasonable or unfair instances involved, right? So that's what the choke points is kind of getting at and that kind of works into the larger article. Go check out this Reuters article. It's pretty interesting. It kind of lays out a whole different thing. There's a few different strategies that we haven't seen otherwise publicly mentioned from unnamed administrative officials. So it's a pretty interesting article. It came out this week. It kind of went under the radar a little bit, but I think that you should go check that out.

Speaker 1: 5:33

All right, captain's log number two, breaking down the USTR port fee. So the most immediate change well, the most immediate change or the most immediate thing that I want to bring this back up to is we are less than a month away from these port fees being implemented. And so, just as a little reminder, right, these are the port fees, these are the USTR Section 301 port fees. And so, starting October 14th, if a ship is operated by a Chinese company or was built in a Chinese shipyard, it will pay a new fee when it calls at the US ports. These fees don't stay flat. They actually ratchet up incrementally for the next few years, at least the next few, I think, through 2028. So what this kind of boils down to if a ship is made in China or it's owned or operated by a Chinese company, you're going to pay to get back to our toll, a toll to dock in the US that's a fee, right. We now have toll yards or you know, like when you're on the highway we're collecting fees based on what kind of carriers or what kind of vessels are coming in. Now I don't think that this is going to be a major new line item, but I say that with caution.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Carriers are able to kind of rotate non-China built vessels out of the US trades or, excuse me, non-china built vessels into the US trades and China built vessels out of the US trades. We've seen that some messaging CMA was doing. There were some public articles that said that CMA was doing that to try to position their fleet so that they are less exposed to some of these port fees that would otherwise ding a China built vessel Right. So there's two categories China owned or operated or China built. So you could have a European company who is operating a China built vessel. Right, because we know China dominates the shipbuilding world. But we also know Korea is pretty good at containerized cargo vessels too. So there are some of those vessels out there and others. But what's happening here is we're seeing the ocean carriers maneuvering their fleet so that you have the China-built vessels moving out of the US routes and perhaps moving into the European routes, because there isn't the same port fee over there and they're going to be bringing over their, for example, korean-built vessels as part of their service lines that call the US.

Speaker 1: 8:01

Because in containerized cargo movements these are regular liner service, right, we haven't talked about that in a while, but it's a regular liner service that has predictability. It has a dedicated service route. This is a kind of airplane route that you'll see, but it's vessels right going throughout the entire world. There's reliability in what ships are designated on those trade lanes. But look, here's the thing, even if I don't think that this is going to be a major new line item for shippers, any cost is unwelcome, right, when importers are already paying for higher tariffs on their goods. But I want you to remember that this is part of a bigger picture here. This is part of a larger strategy that the US is now taking.

Speaker 1: 8:47

These fees are designed to push carriers away from Chinese shipyards, right, because look, if every time you drove a certain brand of car, you had to pay an extra toll at these toll booths right, we're sticking with the analogy here You'd eventually stop buying that brand and moving toward a brand that didn't have a toll associated with it. So the same logic is here. These fees aren't just about today's bills and trying to generate income. They're about tomorrow's fleet choices. They really are trying to impact market decisions of ocean carriers that are operating these vessels to drive them away from China built and toward perhaps one of our allies in the short term. And the plan is for the US to be building commercial cargo vessels in the near. We'll see what that looks like near term, and so perhaps it's Korea tomorrow and perhaps it's US beyond that. And so if we can maneuver away from China built by these fees and push markets toward our allies, our friends or perhaps us when we're ready, that's what's happening here.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Look, I'm going to be breaking this down the fee schedule, how they're calculated, kind of who's exempt. There's a whole category of vessels that are exempt, even if they're China built. I'm going to be doing that on Thursday, october 2nd, at noon Eastern. This is going to be part of my Just In Time Learning Live webinar. I'm going to walk you through it, plain English. So if you're interested in learning a little bit more before that October 14th deadline of the first vessels coming in, how can you kind of protect yourself a little bit. How can you make sure that you are aware, does your vessel, that your cargo is moving on? Does it even have a fee that should have been associated with it? We're going to break down some of those strategies. Register at themaritimeprofessorcom. If you can't make it live, the course will be available on demand afterwards.

Speaker 1: 10:42

All right, captain's Log number three World Shipping Council Cargo Safety Program. So the World Shipping Council this week announced that they've launched a first-of-its-kind cargo safety program to address one of the most serious risks in ocean shipping container ship fires. We've seen some container ship fire messages, media excuse me, news articles happening in the past few years. This is kind of getting to that. Right, ship fires are at their highest level in more than a decade. A major cause, dangerous goods that are either undeclared or misdeclared. Right Cargo that isn't labeled correctly Think lithium batteries listed as just merely electronics. Look, one bad box can endanger thousands of others, the ship and the crew, and one of the major, if not the most dangerous, thing to happen on a vessel is a fire. So the new program aims to prevent these disasters by AI-powered screening. So using National Cargo Bureau technology to scan bookings in real time, flagging high-risk shipments, common inspection standards, so carriers are applying the same safety checks, and an incident feedback loop where real-world cases will strengthen prevention measures over time At launch. What World Shipping Council is saying is that carriers representing over 70% of global capacity have already joined this program. Joe Kramick, world Shipping Council's President and CEO, said it in the announcement the cargo safety program strengthens the industry's safety net by combining shared screening technology, common inspection standards and real-world feedback to reduce risk. Plain language this doesn't replace shippers' legal duty to declare the dangerous goods. It just adds another safety net.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Look, fires at sea don't just cause damage. They take ships out of service, they can sink a ship, they can tighten capacity for everybody else and they can ripple across global supply chains. This is an of the people, ships, cargo and ports that Maritime Administrator Sang-Yi has mentioned at our first episode last week. Now we're going to talk about the mariners here. The Coast Guard has extended the sea service recency period from three years to seven years. So what does that mean? Before this change, if you hadn't sailed in the past three years, you risk potentially losing ground on your license. If you wanted to expand your license, increase your license now. You have seven years before that requirement kicks in Now. This can be a huge relief for mariners who perhaps have to step away for family, shoreside work or military service. Three years is a really short period of time. Seven years expansively enlarges that. Now this is a workforce win at a time when every credentialed mariner matters right.

Speaker 1: 13:35

We heard about that last week with our conversation, with saying that this is a major issue. We can build all the ships we want, but we have to keep focused on increasing our mariners available to sail those ships. Now I want to give a special thanks to Nate Gilman, founder of MMCs. If you know MMCs, I kind of connected that when I was mentioning this the other day Merchant Marine Credential MMC, and then his company is MM-SEAS seas like ocean. Look. Nate summed it up perfectly this is what removing barriers to achieve American maritime dominance looks like in practice. He just put out a LinkedIn post on this and I thought that this was a fantastic summary of not only the good things that this creates, going from three years to seven years, but he also had seven ideas for other ways that we can kind of get to some of the reforming of the Mariner credentialing process.

Speaker 1: 14:27

He suggested CAC for TWIC, so C-A-C for TWIC. Eliminate the redundant and costly TWIC background check for federal personnel, immediately accelerating the military to mariner background. So what is a CAC card? It's a common access card or common access credential. That's something that people who work in especially the DOD already have. It's one of the most secure IDs and this is kind of the issue. This is what he's saying. It's used by military members, dod civilians and contractors and it contains fingerprints, photos, encrypted data. If somebody already has a CAT card, they've passed one of the toughest background checks in government, requiring them to do another full TWIC check. I mean, that's redundant, right? Dropping that duplication would immediately help service members transition into maritime careers. It just makes sense One-to-one. If not, it's even a stronger background check coming over.

Speaker 1: 15:21

The second thing he suggested was we all hold CPR or first aid for work. Eliminate the wasteful and brand-specific first aid CPR prerequisite that causes major delays in credentialing processing to streamline the application process and reduce administrative burdens. So look, mariners are already, for the most part, required to hold CPR and first aid. Most people for work are required to have CPR and first aid Not most, but quite a few. Right, but the Coast Guard system requires very specific brand name courses that can create unnecessary delays in cost, and that's Nate's point here. Standardizing acceptance of equivalent certifications would streamline credential processing without compromising safety. These are just simple things, simple little fixes. The third thing he mentioned was automatic continuity upon expiration. A Mariner's earned qualification shouldn't vanish because of a made-up deadline that can be fixed in minutes inside of the USCG current software. So the background right now, if your credential expires, even briefly, you can lose the qualifications you worked years to earn. The COSAR's own systems could easily keep those records intact. This fix would ensure that a paperwork lapse doesn't erase someone's professional standing.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Moving on to number four, we have Nate saying one fee every time. Replace the complex and error-prone fee structure with a single flat fee, preventing absolute cost predictability for mariners and saving government resources. So right now, the Coast Guard's current fee schedule is a little confusing, a little perhaps unpredictable if you can't understand it, and it can lead to mistakes. A flat-face system would make that clear, predictable and easier to process for both the mariners who are applying and also the Coast Guard. Number five and, like I said, he's got seven here, so we're almost wrapping up.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Skills don't expire, he says. Eliminate the arbitrary recency requirement that penalizes valid experience, creating a more equitable system that prevents the loss of skilled personnel. Until this latest reform, if you hadn't sailed in three years, you risk losing upgrade opportunities, even if you had decades of valid experience. Extending recency to seven years helps, but the larger point is that skills don't disappear just because you've been on shore for a few years, and I think this is something I call the boomerang effect, where we might have mariners who then go to shore. For you know, maybe they're I'm getting out of here. This is too much for me. They've been going out to sea for quite a while. They think I'm never coming back, and then they go. They build a family. They come back in maybe 15, 20 years, or in 15, 20 years they're like okay, my kids are off to college. I kind of miss that adventure of going off to sea. But they didn't do a continuity of their license at the time. Maybe that's what we need. We need some sort of continuity. I know I've heard that nurses have something similar. During COVID we had some nurses who were letting their licenses lapse and then what happened is they were able to come back into the field because of a little change to the licensure here. Perhaps that boomerang effect is something that we need and Nate's point skills don't expire. I think that's certainly relevant here. If we can do it for nurses, we can certainly do it for mariners.

Speaker 1: 18:20

Number six of what Nate said one sea service form. Mandate a single standard form for civilian sea service to eliminate frequent application errors and ensure consistent, fast and fair evaluations for all mariners. Look, different companies currently use different forms, which leads to mistakes and delays in credentialing, and there can be different forms for whichever licensure category that you're applying for. As I have known every five years with my 50-ton baby captain's license I call it a baby license right, it is compared to the unlimited tonnages that are out there. I know this well. I know that every time, every five years, I have to go through and think, okay, what do I need? What form do I need? What did I use last time? Is it the same this time? I like Nate's point here. A single standardized form would bring consistency and speed to the process, making it fair and perhaps less frustrating and certainly less time consuming. A fair and perhaps less frustrating and certainly less time consuming.

Speaker 1: 19:15

His last reform suggestion here one TOS for service members mandate a single standardized transcript of sea service TOS formed to eliminate the administrative burden on our veterans, making the process faster and more reliable. So every military branch currently has its own version of a TOS right Transcript of sea service. That patchwork system slows down applications and creates confusion. A standardized TOS would give veterans a smoother, faster transition into commercial maritime careers and perhaps would make it an easier job of the Coast Guard to help our mariners go from military to mariners. This is a program out of Marriott. It's a fantastic program Military to Mariner where we are trying to transition those who have sea time, who have sea service moving over and getting them credentialed in the maritime world as a Merchant Mariner credential so that they can help us, so that they can be part of our Mariner workforce that we so desperately need in this country.

Speaker 1: 20:09

Look, nate's list is all about removing friction, cutting redundant checks, simplifying paperwork, making fees predictable and honoring valid experience Small fixes here. I didn't mean to go through the whole list, but as I was kind of looking at his list I thought this is incredible. These are simple things that could really happen quickly. These are simple fixes that would make credentialing cheaper, faster and more reliable. I mean we can start with low-hanging fruit. We don't need to be solving the world's problems. We can solve some of these quick administrative problems and really speed things up.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Look, think about the DMV. If your license expired, you wouldn't want to redo driver's ed just to renew it, right? These reforms are about cutting the same kind of unnecessary roadblocks for mariners. And you know, I've never had my license expire for my driver's license, so perhaps perhaps you have to redo driver's ed. I'm not sure what it actually is, but that's kind of the equivalency here. Right? If your license expired, maybe by a few days, you're probably. Look, I don't want to go too far into the DMV, I don't know the drivering rules, but what I'm saying here is you didn't forget how to drive a car, you just didn't file the paperwork.

Speaker 1: 21:17

Maritime, perhaps there's something there. All right, story number five on my captain's log protecting America's supply chain from cargo theft. This is another big one this week. This just came out Department of Transportation is seeking input on cargo theft. I'm going to say that again the Department of Transportation is seeking input on cargo theft. They want to know more about what's happening in the supply chain.

Speaker 1: 21:35

Cargo theft costs billions every year, if not more than billions. It can happen at truck stops, intermodal yards, ports, warehouses it happens all across the country. And these operations, I mean I've been learning a little bit more about cargo theft over the past year or year and a half. I mean I've been learning a little bit more about cargo theft over the past year or year and a half. They're very sophisticated. They could have entire companies built up and you would have no idea that they are part of this cargo theft ring.

Speaker 1: 22:01

Now, imagine if a package was missing off your porch. Now that's annoying, right. But imagine if an entire container of pharmaceuticals or electronics vanished en route. That's the scale of loss that DOT is trying to prevent. The RFI, the Request for Information, is open until October 20th 2025, and they're asking for input on where theft happens most often, which commodities are the most vulnerable, which prevention practices or technologies are working, how federal policy can help reduce theft without slowing freight.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Look, the stakes are really high here. Cargo theft has been exploding since COVID. Shippers can lose cargo value and face rebooking delays. They can just lose their entire cargo. Carriers can suffer higher insurance premiums and it can be tough to figure out when and where and who did what wrong. Look, supply chains overall can really suffer with cargo theft. Obviously, I'm not saying anything that you don't know here, right? Cargo theft isn't just a nuisance, it's a growing crisis.

Speaker 1: 23:00

I am so encouraged to see DOT trying to illuminate the issue, getting more information on this. I know that Commerce has done some work on this in the past too, but look, like I said, since COVID, theft has exponentially increased Organized crime rings. These are sophisticated organized crime rings not always, but you'd be surprised how sophisticated these crime rings are. They can target high value loads like electronics, food, pharmaceuticals, remote handoffs, stretch trucking capacity. Labor shortages can create opportunities that thieves can quickly exploit, and that's why this DOT RFI, this request for information, is so important.

Speaker 1: 23:38

By gathering this data, where theft is happening, what's being stolen and what prevention strategies work. I mean, that's what they're asking for. They want to know from the industry Whenever an agency is asking for comments from the industry. This is your opportunity, as though you could have a meeting with the Secretary of Transportation himself, sean Duffy. This is your opportunity. Write out what's going on in your world. Write out what's happening in cargo theft. Send that information. This is your written version of a meeting with Department of Transportation. The government has a chance to tackle an issue here that directly raises costs and undermine trust across the entire supply chain. I implore everybody here any of my listeners take a look at it at least and consider filing comments on this one. They need to know what they don't know. They can't help, right, and the government isn't always here to help, but I would like to see the government more informed, based on the actual industry feedback, on what's going on. So take a look at this the cargo theft request for information out of DOT. All right, this last one this is just in my captain's log.

Speaker 1: 24:39

We've been getting such a great feedback lately on our rebrand and on our new model and our new approach and I just want to say thank you. I really appreciate everyone's excitement right now, right along with us, right in step with the rebrand of by Land and by Sea. It shows what a great community we have in the maritime world. I've just been so I felt so supported here this season. You'll notice we have a refreshed logo, we have new visuals, we have the new video intro, we have more guest conversations happening with policymaker, port executives, supply chain leaders, government officials. Look, the feedback has been energizing. It tells me that the show is really resonating with the community, exactly who it was built for right.

Speaker 1: 25:20

We're expanding our Just-In-Time learning courses through the Maritime Professor. Many of you joined the recent live session which was FMC versus Mar-Ed, and I got so much great feedback on how helpful the plain language breakdown was. 30 minutes or less that's what Just-In-Time learning courses are. 30 minutes or less that's what just-in-time learning courses are. 30 minutes or less you will have a great understanding of what the topic is and you're often on your way for the day. If you missed FMC versus MARAD, don't worry, the full course is actually available on demand. All of these just-in-time learning courses, if there's a live webinar, will then transition into an on-demand session that you can go listen to the session and find out what you missed. If you've ever been confused about who does what in US maritime policy, that FMC vs MARAD was a great course to. It is a great course to go take a look at and, as our audience continues to grow, this is the perfect time for organizations to get involved. I'm offering partnership and sponsorship opportunities to connect with this niche high-level maritime community. Email info at themaritimeprofessorcom to learn more.

Speaker 1: 26:19

And speaking of conversations, we have a great one next week. I just had the conversation, this interview I'm going to be joined with Caitlin Hardy of Nessie. We're going to be talking about US shipyard policy, kind of continuing some of the conversation items that we started with with Acting Maritime Administrator Sang Yee last week. We're going to get her thoughts on government investment in repair and maintenance, the role geography plays in national security, like I said, us shipyard policy, but her thoughts on innovation and ship building. She is front and center on a lot of these things. It's going to continue the conversation we started last week with Acting Maritime Administrator Sang-Yi. You do not want to miss it. Caitlin Hardy of Nessie, this is a great conversation. So that's next week. So what does this all mean? It means that the US is steadily tightening its grip on the maritime space.

Speaker 1: 27:05

All these topics today in this Captain's Log whether it's countering China's influence, reshaping costs through port fees, tackling safety and workforce issues or looking seriously at cargo theft these aren't one-off stories. They're threads in a much bigger picture about supply chain resilience and America's maritime future. What should you be watching? Well, keep an eye on how carriers are responding to these port fees. We're already seeing a lot of messaging saying that there's not going to be a surcharge. That comes across as a general matter, but pay attention to how they are assessed Once October 14th hits. But pay attention to how they are assessed Once October 14th hits just watch. I think that it's important to be informed on what's coming and then watch the implementation, because it's not necessarily the carrier's fault. Right? These vessels have been in their fleets for years. At this point, they didn't know that they weren't supposed to quote unquote be buying Chinese built vessels because China dominated the market. Be buying Chinese built vessels because China dominated the market. This is all part of a larger strategy to shift where purchases are made influence the market. We also looked at whether the Coast Guard builds on this momentum for credentialing reform. I'd love to see a little bit more there and how DOT's work on cargo theft should shift the risk landscape for shippers. I hope that it does. I hope that this is the beginning of an impactful and actual change in cargo theft and the way that we combat it.

Speaker 1: 28:24

As always, stay tuned right here. Sometimes I'll be bringing you the leaders from across the industry and sometimes, like it's just me with a microphone, breaking it all down in plain language so you can see how the pieces fit together. Next week, like I said, I'll be joined by Caitlin Hardy. You don't want to miss it. If you'd like this Captain's Log edition, be sure to follow, subscribe and leave a review.

Speaker 1: 28:42

Want to go deeper on these topics or bring this kind of insight to your team? Visit themaritimeprofessorcom to explore corporate trainings, tailored briefings and on-demand webinars, all designed to make complex maritime regulations practical and easy to understand. And don't forget, thursday October 2nd at noon, I'll be hosting a just-in-time learning series. Mark it on your calendar. This is the USTR China 301 port fees. It's going to be titled USTR Ship Fee. Who gets stuck with the bill? The new dockside toll booth who stops and sails through? Plain talk, no fine print. Register at themaritimeprofessorcom or catch it later on demand, also at themaritimeprofessorcom.

Speaker 1: 29:19

And if your organization needs help navigating the legal or strategic side of ocean shipping, head over to Squall Strategies. That's where I provide consulting services, regulatory guidance, legal analysis, policy support for clients working directly with the FMC and across the global supply chain. As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only. And as always, this podcast is for educational purposes only, not legal advice. If you need an attorney, contact an attorney. Until next time, I'm Lauren Began, the Maritime Professor, and you've just listened to by Land and by Sea. See you next time, you.