Made in America brings opportunity and costs. Today, a lesson from the building of cargo ships.

I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. The Trump administration wants to impose fees on Made in China cargo ships, the dock at U.S. ports.

The idea is to help the American shipbuilding industry, but yesterday the U.S.

trade representative got an earful from industries that say, look at the costs. Marketplaces

Nova Sopho has that. The Trump administration's proposed fees could be as high as $3 million

per vessel. They're an attempt to counter state-subsidized Chinese shipbuilding.

American steelworkers unions and steel makers support the idea,

but there are likely to be big consequences for global trade.

Mikhailia Acharo specializes in maritime shipping at the Copenhagen Business School.

Targeting ships that are built in China, of course, has an impact because it makes the availability of those ships,

which are really the workhors of international trade, more expensive.

American industry leaders told the U.S. trade representative the same thing at a hearing yesterday.

They said the proposed fees would increase the costs of American goods being shipped overseas.

Certainly, the final result of any policy imposed unilaterally by the U.S.

would be an increase in the cost of trade for the United States.

And I don't see what's the value or the benefits of that.

Meanwhile, American cargo ship operators warn they could suffer because they too rely on

Chinese-made vessels. I'm Nova Salfo for Marketplace. It says something when it's caused for

celebration when we get a middling sea. The American Society of Civil Engineers released

its 2025 report card for infrastructure. Today, the U.S. shows improvement, but there's a lot of work to be

done. Here's Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genser. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives

our infrastructure an overall grade of C. That's up from a C-minus in the last report four years ago.

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