On 23 September, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US and China had agreed to extend the “Busan Agreement” by two months, from 10 November to 10 January 2027. FreightWaves places the remark as Xi Jinping met Donald Trump in Washington. Safety4Sea dates that meeting to 24 September. CargoLinked adds that NBC News traced the remark to a Fox News interview and that no official document was mentioned. FreightFigures noted on 24 September that Beijing had not publicly confirmed it. By 25 September, Safety4Sea’s headline read “US-China extend port fee suspension to January 2027.”
The paperwork says something different. As of the latest reporting I could find, the written expiry date for the pause on Section 301 port fees is still 9 November.
Two dates, two instruments
The Section 301 port fees would apply to vessels operated or owned by Chinese companies, and to Chinese-built ships run by other carriers. USTR suspended them for one year from 10 November 2025. FreightWaves describes the governing notice this way: the pause expires at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on 9 November, and fees apply again from the start of 10 November unless the agency modifies it. FreightFigures cites the document as FR Doc 2025-19873.
A truce is a diplomatic arrangement. The fee pause is a Federal Register notice. FreightFigures notes that a verbal extension does not move the 9 November expiry of the fee pause or of the 178 product exclusions, because each expires under its own notice.
Where things stood in the sources:
- FreightWaves, writing on 28 September, said no formal notice extending the fee pause had been issued.
- Freightos, in its 30 September update, wrote that the deescalation “likely also postpones” the fees, and said USTR had not yet issued anything official. The sentence is garbled on the page, so I give only its gist.
- CargoLinked, on 6 October, checked the Federal Register listing of USTR documents through 5 October and found no extension.
- Safety4Sea reported the fee suspension as extended to January, then added that formal implementation details have yet to be announced.
FreightWaves and CargoLinked looked for the paperwork and did not find it. Safety4Sea reported the extension and noted that implementation details were still pending. CargoLinked says outright that a missing notice does not mean the fees will resume, and that officials may well publish an extension. FreightFigures calls an extension the likely outcome, with timing and scope still open.
I found nothing newer than 6 October on a USTR notice. Check the Federal Register listing for USTR before relying on this piece.
What the fees would cost
FreightWaves summarises the original fee schedule. Chinese operators and Chinese-owned vessels would pay $50 per net ton. Non-Chinese operators using Chinese-built ships would pay the higher of $18 per net ton or $120 per discharged container. The action caps charges at one call per vessel per rotation and five rotations per calendar year, with exclusions for certain small vessels, vessels arriving empty and some specialised trades. Both FreightWaves and FreightFigures add that the schedule steps up in later years, and USTR’s notice would set which tier applies if fees resume.
FreightWaves says carriers could recover costs through surcharges or all-in freight rates. FreightFigures says carriers passed the fees through as surcharges when they were briefly in effect in October 2025, and expects pass-through to reappear quickly if the pause lapses.
CargoLinked dates a joint letter to USTR to 23 September, signed by groups including the World Shipping Council, asking for the suspension to be extended before it expires. It cites FreightWaves’ count of more than 200 signatories.
The $30 billion that may or may not be a tariff cut
The tariff side has its own gap. Freightos writes that the two sides “will reduce tariffs on $30B worth of counterpart imports” to most-favoured-nation levels, pending legal procedures. It counts nearly 80 affected US product entries, toys being the largest category by value, and more than 1,600 entries on China’s list.
CargoLinked quotes the White House fact sheet of 25 September differently. The countries “reached consensus on recommendations for more favorable tariff treatment” for $30 billion of non-sensitive goods in each direction. Per CargoLinked, the fact sheet does not mention the truce extension, Section 301 or port fees. CargoLinked’s reading is that a recommendation changes nothing until a Federal Register notice or proclamation says so and CBP issues guidance. It advises using the rates in force.
I have not read the fact sheet myself, so I give CargoLinked’s quotation of the primary text more weight than a weekly market note.
Rates, meanwhile
Freightos’ 30 September update put Asia-US West Coast spot rates at $8,400 per FEU for the previous week, a new high for the year. Its 6 October update showed $8,322 for the following week, with East Coast level at $9,600. Freightos points to blanked sailings and port backlogs in China as reasons the floor may stay elevated, and does not tie these moves to the fee question. It also relays that Bessent reportedly said the US agreed to only two months because China still has agricultural purchases to complete. Freightos reads that as a possible sign of another extension. That is its own inference.
Where this leaves a booking desk
For cargo on China-built or China-operated tonnage arriving at US ports after 9 November, CargoLinked suggests asking the carrier or forwarder in writing how a resumed fee would be billed, and whether it shows up as a separate surcharge or inside the rate. NorthStandard, as reported by Safety4Sea, advises industry participants to consider clear charterparty provisions on who bears US and Chinese port fees.
China’s own reciprocal “special port fees” on US-linked vessels were suspended on a similar timetable, according to FreightWaves. CargoLinked could not find an update on the Chinese side, and says so.
My own view: keep two columns, what was said and what is published, and put a date in each.
Checklist before 9 November
- Check the Federal Register for a USTR notice that moves the Section 301 port fees past 9 November.
- List bookings on China-built or China-operated ships that call US ports on or after 10 November.
- Ask the carrier or forwarder in writing how a resumed fee would be billed: separate surcharge or inside the rate.
- Check charterparty clauses on who bears US and Chinese port fees.
- Keep using the tariff rates in force until a notice or proclamation changes them.
Where Navo fits
Navo tracks rates and containers. FreightRatesMCP gives daily ocean spot rates with trend analysis, and each Navo product comes with a dashboard, REST API, webhooks and an MCP server. If a fee turns up as a surcharge, ask your forwarder whether the quote is all-in.
Navo’s products run on shared events, so the lane you priced is the lane you track. TrackingMCP covers containers across 240+ carriers on one normalised standard. Tracking and rates share one data layer, so you can look at both for the same lane. What a fee would mean for your landed cost remains a question for your carrier and your broker.