Last-minute changes to new port fees enacted by the Trump administration’s U.S. Trade Representative have stuck one U.S.-based ocean carrier with an estimated annual tariff bill of $34 million, after it was reclassified under new Section 301 program terms.
On Oct. 14, the first day of the fee program, Atlantic Container Line paid a $1.4 million tariff due to its unique container vessel construction. ACL’s ships carry 80% shipping containers, 10% roll on/roll off freight (such as tractors, construction equipment, and passenger cars), and 10% freight that is oversize cargo like aircraft wings and transformers for power plants and data center machinery.
The additional changes include the fee structure for vehicle carriers, otherwise known as roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) vessels, which help to carry automobiles, farm equipment and other heavy machinery. Now, a fee will be charged based on the vessel’s net tonnage capacity instead of the number of vehicles being carried. That is on top of the new standard USTR port fees, which went into effect on Tuesday and have led to broader confusion among ship owners about potential financial hits.
Atlantic Container Line vessel, which carries both containers (80% capacity) as well as various kinds of large freight cargo, from tractors to aircraft wings and power plant equipment.
Atlantic Container Line
Under the USTR rule — Section 301 allows it to take action against internationally-based discriminatory trade practices, and this investigation was begun under the Biden administration with a focus on Chinese port equipment, among other issues, and followed through on in Trump’s new term — an ocean carrier is charged five times per vessel a year. ACL vessels travel along the transatlantic route, and they use five vessels in their fleet that service the U.S. trade lane to ensure weekly service.
“That’s 25 vessels being charged $1.4 million a year,” Andrew Abbott, CEO of Atlantic Container Line, tells CNBC. “We are looking at a tariff total of $34 million a year!”
Abbott says his company has hit hard by a bureaucratic blind spot. Out of the 10% roll-on/roll-off freight ACL handles, only one percent is passenger cars. “The vessel should be classified by the majority of freight we move. That’s containers. We have always been considered a Container vessel. This time around, Customs and Border Protection changed it to Ro/Ro container.”
Abbott says you can visually see the difference between their container vessels versus a Ro/Ro vessel.
“Traditional Ro/Ro’s look like floating parking garages; we do not,” he said.
A large roll-on/roll-off ship berths at Lianyungang Port to load new energy vehicles for export in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, China, on August 19, 2025.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Abbott warns over the long term, if the company has to continue to pay the tariffs, it may not be able to viably operate a business in the U.S. and could be forced to relocate operations, impacting U.S.-based importers and exporters.
“A lot of the freight we bring in is going to American manufacturers as well as for export,” Abbott said. “They’re terrified that they’re now going to lose their main carrier for bringing that product In. So, there’s a lot of shaking of heads, and what I’ll call just shock,” he said.
Abbott says that with his company carrying cargo that few others handle, its exit from the market would force U.S. exporters and importers to find a charter service that would cost more money and not provide weekly service.
“To give you a simple example, a major American car manufacturer a few years ago wanted to relocate their assembly line from Germany to Kentucky, and we moved it,” Abbott said. “We moved their containers of parts, moved the big, big machines. They didn’t have to charter a ship. They could ship every week on our vessel as the factory in Germany was going down, the one in Kentucky was going up. That’s a unique thing that we do, but that would disappear, and that company would not have that option anymore,” he said.
The interior of an Atlantic Container Line vessel with a train car as cargo.
Atlantic Container Line
Abbott says since the new fees went into effect, ACL has spoken with clients about the tariff costs and potentially being forced to pass them on.
“They’re incredulous,” he said. “They never thought in 1,000 years that we would be affected. And we’re trying to tell people now, and the magnitude of what is at stake is putting people in shock. At this point, the importers are dealing with tariffs, and this is now something on top of that, and possibly could shut them down,” Abbott said.
In what he described as a “rough economic climate,” Abbott said the surprise fee is adding more uncertainty.
“This is another straw that is going to break the camel’s back,” he said. “We hope we can talk to somebody in the administration who will listen. I think we could make our point. It should be pretty clear.”
A statement from USTR to CNBC suggests that no change in the application of the program rules and fees is currently being considered.
“Vessels have long been required to report their International Classification of Ships by Type (ICST) code to CBP. USTR’s responsive action utilizes this existing reporting to CBP as a mechanism to determine applicability of service fees under the Section 301 action,” a USTR spokesperson wrote. “To clarify, we note that International Classification of Ships by Type (ICST) is based on the construction characteristics of the marine structure and not upon its particular use or cargo carried at a point in time.”
Abbott told CNBC if the situation remains the same, “then we have to start seriously looking next year about redeploying. That’s something we would have to do, even though we don’t want to. It would bring to an end a very, very long history for a guy who has a unique service that nobody else really has on the Atlantic trade lane. We fought off all of our big competitors, guys who were 15 times bigger than we are. I’m only hoping that my government doesn’t put us out of business because we fought off everybody else,” he said.
