Trump announces shipbuilding office in White House
"We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much but we’re going to make them very soon.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first address to the Congress after returning to power on January 20, announced plans to "resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding.
"And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new office of shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs.
"We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact."
Trump added that in the administration's efforts to enhance national security, "my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it.
"Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals. The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others. But others could use it. But it was built at tremendous cost of American blood and treasure. 38,000 workers died building the Panama Canal. They died of malaria. They died of snakebites and mosquitoes. Not a nice place to work.
"They paid them very highly to go there, knowing there was a 25 percent chance that they would die. The most expensive project that was ever built in our country’s history if you bring it up to modern-day costs. It was given away by the Carter administration for $1. But that agreement has been violated very severely.
"We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back."
CK Hutchison, through Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), reached an in-principle agreement whereby HPH’s 90 percent interests in Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal in Panama, will be sold to the BlackRock-Terminal Investment (TiL) consortium.
The deal also includes CK Hutchison’s 80 percent effective and controlling interest in subsidiary and associated companies owning, operating and developing a total of 43 ports comprising 199 berths in 23 countries, says an official release.
"The HPH Ports sale perimeter does not include any interest in the HPH Trust, which operates ports in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and South China, or any other ports in China," the release added.
The aggregate enterprise value for 100 percent of HPH ports sale perimeter, including the Panama ports, has been agreed at $22.8 billion.
The Trump administration has also announced plans for a $1 million fee every time a vessel operated by a China carrier enters a U.S. port. The federal notice also threatens further substantial fees for China-built vessels operated by a carrier from any nation. A third section in the notice proposes an additional charge levied against carriers based on the percentage of new ships on order being built in China.
