As President Donald Trump prepares for high-stakes talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14–15, a bipartisan group of senators is urging him to draw a hard line on maritime trade, arguing that U.S. shipbuilding capacity, and national security, hang in the balance.
In a May 11 letter, Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Todd Young, (R-Ind.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) warned that the United States faces “an inflection point” after decades of decline in commercial shipbuilding. They called on Trump to resist any concessions that would weaken existing trade measures targeting Chinese-built vessels.
