One day after proposing a fee for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump on Tuesday said the United States would instead guarantee safe passage to vessels from Persian Gulf states that agree to invest in the United States.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear how Mr. Trump\u2019s plans would play out, and the president\u2019s latest comments left questions unanswered.<\/p>\n
But the flip-flop shows how far the debate over the strait, the vital waterway in the Middle East, has strayed from longstanding practices in the shipping industry and underscores the level of unpredictability that businesses working in the region are facing as the conflict between the United States and Iran lurches back to war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that things are changing all the time, itself, means that it\u2019s hard to make a decision to normalize trade,\u201d said Lasse Kristoffersen, the chief executive of Wallenius Wilhelmsen, a car shipping and logistics company based in Norway.<\/p>\n
Jakob Larsen, the chief safety and security officer at BIMCO, the world\u2019s largest shipping association, said that Mr. Trump\u2019s plan raises the risk that other countries will try to monetize the international waterway that they border.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is, of course, really, really problematic from a shipowner\u2019s perspective and for shipping in general,\u201d Mr. Larsen said. \u201cIt will only drive up the cost of transportation across the globe, and that will eventually hit the end customer and create inflationary pressure.\u201d Ultimately, when leaders make comments that undermine international conventions, the conventions become weaker, he said.<\/p>\n
The changing plans and at times contradictory approaches show how Mr. Trump has struggled to confront Iran, which has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to endure attacks and exert its own control of the strait, using drones and missiles to strike ships. The result has been a drawn-out conflict that\u2019s roiled the global economy and sent oil prices soaring.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a day after saying he would charge 20 percent fees to ships in exchange for U.S. military protection when using the waterway, Mr. Trump said he would scrap his proposed fees if Gulf countries invested in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,\u201d he said on social media. \u201cThose Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump\u2019s post did not say which countries he was referring to or whether countries outside the Persian Gulf that use the strait, including allies like Japan and South Korea, would also be asked to make U.S. investments.<\/p>\n
His remarks came weeks after his administration, in response to Iran threatening to impose tolls in the strait, said such levies were unacceptable<\/a>.<\/p>\n The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency that regulates global shipping, said Tuesday that it was aware of Mr. Trump\u2019s announcement about seeking trade and investment deals in exchange for safe passage through the strait and was awaiting more details.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have always been consistent on our stance on fees \u2014 I.M.O. stands firmly against charging fees for passage through straits used for international navigation,\u201d said Natasha Brown, a spokeswoman for the agency, in a statement on Tuesday. \u201cThere is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait.\u201d<\/p>\n Shipping is the cheapest way to move goods, and more than 80 percent of world trade is transported by ship. While neither the United States nor Iran has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the treaty that calls for shipping through international waterways to be free, they have generally <\/strong>followed its norms<\/a> for decades.<\/p>\n Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was an international shipping route that vessels sailed through without charge. But since the start of the war, Iranian officials have repeatedly said they intend to monetize the strait.<\/p>\n