President Trump has abandoned his proposal to charge a 20% fee on cargo ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, reversing course just one day after announcing it, following pushback from Gulf allies and the global shipping industry.
“Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social, calling the investments “MASSIVE” without providing details.
Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd had called the toll “fundamentally wrong,” and the UN’s International Maritime Organisation also objected to the plan.
Trump did not reverse a separate, related measure: the U.S. proceeded with a blockade targeting ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, effective 4 pm ET Tuesday, explicitly aimed at Iranian vessels rather than international shipping generally.
Strait traffic has collapsed since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began in February, falling from 147 crossings a day before the conflict to just 22 by July 9, according to shipping tracker Kpler.
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