Section 301 Port-Entry Fees: What the 9 November 2026 Clock Holds

A fee on ocean service into the United States is written against a vessel, not against a carton, and the dates around it decide whether a seller ever sees it. The instrument exists on paper and has been parked twice, so the working question for a Q4 booking is which days it stands charged and who pays first.

Key facts

• The clock this month. The one-year suspension of the Section 301 maritime action took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on 10 November 2025; a further two-month pause was proposed on 26 October 2026 and would run from 10 November 2026 to 9 January 2027 if adopted.
• No final order was readable today. On 4 November 2026 the case page still listed the October item as a request for comments, so 9 November 2026 is a date to re-check rather than assume.
• The charge attaches per call. When active it is assessed on a vessel entering a United States port, scaled by that vessel's tonnage, and collected from the operator rather than from cargo.
• Two mirrors. China announced reciprocal charges on United States-linked tonnage in October 2025 and both sets were parked together, which is why two surcharges can appear in one season and vanish in one week.
• No figure above is a rate. Our quotations are built per cargo against dimensions, mass, type and destination, not published here.

What is on the record, date by date

Five dates carry the story and each sits in a different instrument. The investigation into Chinese shipbuilding and maritime logistics opened on 17 April 2024. A determination followed on 16 January 2025, announcing port-entry charges on vessels connected to China by ownership, operation or build, phasing in from calls after 14 October 2025. A notice published on 13 November 2025 then suspended the action for one year from 10 November 2025. The item that matters now is a request for comments dated 26 October 2026, proposing a further two-month suspension and closing to comments on 30 October 2026. A request is not an order, and that gap is where quotations get into trouble.

Who is billed, and who carries it

The party named in the instrument is the vessel operator, and the money moves before a call is worked rather than after a delivery. That decides the shape of the recovery. A carrier that has paid in advance recovers across its sailings as it chooses: a dated surcharge, a figure folded into base freight, or a revision clause held in reserve. None of those three is a legal document, and none changes who owed the charge. No customs authority bills a carton importer for this measure, so wording that puts the duty on cargo is a commercial sentence rather than a finding.

What a booking looks like when fees reopen

A pause changes the arithmetic only for the days it covers, and space is contracted weeks before a sailing, so a quotation can be performed inside a legal environment different from the one that priced it. Operators then answer a per-call charge by moving tonnage rather than absorbing cost, and tonnage movement is what a shipper feels. The observable effects are shorter lists of acceptable sailings, more transshipment onto services whose vessel mix escapes the charge, and narrower validity windows on quotations carrying a policy line. Rolls and blanked sailings become likelier around an effective date, because a line would rather skip a call than pay for it. Cargo that can tolerate slack gains options; cargo tied to a fixed date loses them with the market.

Reading a surcharge line without arguing later

Ask four questions, in order, and keep the answers on the same thread as the booking. Which measure the line references, since one instrument cannot explain a second. Which port pair and sailing it is stated against, because a per-call charge does not divide evenly across every box on board. Which validity window it holds, because a figure quoted in October and performed in January has crossed a dated suspension. And which revision rule permits a change, with what notice. If a line answers none of these, it is not a charge you must accept; it is an invoice still waiting for a basis.

What we do with this on the China side

Little that is dramatic. Cargo reaches our Dongguan, Shenzhen or Suzhou sites on your instruction and the export leg is filed here against your paperwork; a destination-side vessel measure is the operator's affair and the importer named on the entry. What we add is documentary discipline: confirmations state the channel matched to the carton rather than a label, and transit figures are published as estimates because a working-day count moves with carrier schedules and holidays at origin. Three sites totalling 24,000 square metres - Dongguan 8,000 for business-to-consumer parcels, Shenzhen 3,000 for pallets and crates, Suzhou 13,000 for Yangtze-delta consolidation - is where those records are made, with quality reported as mis-picks under 0.01 per cent, counted per order line.

Frequently asked questions

Does this charge appear on my import entry at destination?

No, and that distinction causes most arguments. The measure is collected from the vessel operator before a call is worked, so it does not print in an entry summary under an importer's name and cannot be recovered as duty by whoever imported. What reaches you is a line inside a freight quotation. Ask which instrument it references and which sailing it covers, because a charge that never touched your entry can still reach your freight account twice when paperwork is loose.

Should I re-book now in case the suspension lapses?

Re-book against a date you verified, not against a rumour. The pause on the record reaches 9 November 2026 unless a completed modification extends it, and none was readable at the source on 4 November 2026. If cargo is not ready, an early booking costs storage and gains nothing. If it is ready and the sailing fits the channel the carton qualifies for, hold the quotation to a stated validity window and revision trigger. Every working-day figure we publish is an estimate, verified sailing by sailing before a plan rests on it.

Who pays when a carrier and an agent disagree about a surcharge?

Whoever accepted the quotation, then argues with whoever wrote it. Basis matters more than total. A carrier recovering what it paid may spread it, itemise it or bury it in base freight, and each choice is commercial rather than legal. Ask for the rule permitting revision, when it last changed and what notice it requires. Where no rule exists, ask for the line to be withdrawn for that sailing and keep the exchange in writing beside the booking, because a claim made by telephone leaves nothing to reconcile.

Reviewed 4 November 2026 (2026-11-04). The dated sequence above was read that same day against the case page on ustr.gov and the notice of 26 October 2026 in the Federal Register; re-read both before a booking is signed, because a suspension clock moves and a proposal is not an order. Issued under the FulfillDock by SBT brand - the trading entity here is Shenzhen Shibotong International Logistics Co., Ltd., registered 2011, working from floors in Dongguan, Shenzhen and Suzhou. Related: the FAQ page, the United States route note and the contact page.