Tropical Shipping, which provides service to the British Virgin Islands, has announced that it is among the carriers exempt from recently imposed United States tariffs targeting companies operating Chinese-built vessels.
The Florida-based shipping and logistics company is one of the main carriers that local businesses use to import their goods and materials into the territory.
The company said the tariffs being imposed by the Donald Trump administration would have cost their customers an additional $3,000 per 40-foot container load and would have resulted in up to $1 million dollars in tariffs.
But they said due to their advocacy and that of many Caribbean stakeholders, those tariffs would not go into effect for them and some other US-based carriers.
“This is a huge victory for us and the entire Caribbean region that we serve,” said Tropical Shipping President and CEO Tim Martin. “Our voices were heard.”
“We could not have accomplished this without the relentless advocacy from our Caribbean representatives in Washington, D.C., our customers, and the many organizations that wrote letters to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) describing the devastating multiplier effect these port fees would have had on all of us,” the CEO explained.
Martin said US government representatives were surprised by the massive response from Caribbean leaders and businesses that wrote letters advocating for the tariffs to be lifted.
Some of the Caribbean stakeholders include: USVI Governor Albert Bryan and USVI Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, Barbadian Prime Minister and CARICOM chair Mia Mottley as well as shipping and tourism associations in the region.
Though one shipping company has managed to escape the tariffs, the BVI public isn’t yet free from tariffs as the BVI receives goods from other countries and carriers that use US ports and may be subject to those fees.
In the meantime, members of the government have said they cannot yet land on an overall strategy to tackle the US tariffs because the Trump administration continues to change its policy regarding global tariffs.
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