China

When I first started writing about international shipping more than 15 years ago, a rollercoaster was the best metaphor to describe the industry, with its volatile, up-and-down freight rates for [...]

Do you know what country is the number one trading partner for the U.S.? It’s not China. It’s not Canada…. 2026 marks the third consecutive year that Mexico is the United [...]

2025 is drawing to a close, and that means it’s time to look back at the Top 10 Universal Cargo blog posts of the year! It’s always a fun exercise to count down the top 10 – David [...]

This is a guest post by Ellie Gabel. Because of China’s enormous supplier base, well-developed logistics network and production expertise, it has been the centerpiece of global supply [...]

Universal Cargo’s blog was going to publish a guest post today, but then big international shipping news hit late last night/early this morning. President Trump and President Xi JinPing [...]

Air Freight Surge A couple weeks ago, the trade war between the U.S. and China escalated. China announced export controls expansions and President Trump responded with a threat of increasing [...]

Last week, the U.S.–China trade war, which has seemed pretty tranquil of late, escalated. China Expands Export Controls on Rare Earths On Thursday (October 9th), Beijing announced new measures to [...]

A cyclone shut down operations at ports and airports in Southern China and Hong Kong the last couple days, likely causing up to a week (in some cases possibly more) in delays for shippers [...]

There’s some good news for shippers’ bottom lines where many were worried. Next month, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will start collecting fees on China-built ships [...]

Next month, large fees on Chinese-built ships calling on U.S. ports goes into effect. They’re not going to be as enormous as U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer initially [...]

Today, August 12th, was the deadline for the tariff pause between the U.S. and China. Without a new deal or extension, tariffs between the countries were set to soar back to embargo-like numbers: [...]

Last week, we looked at three potential trade deals: one likely, one unlikely, and one iffy to happen before the August 1st tariff hike deadline. India came in as the likely deal to happen. Less [...]

President Trump extended the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for countries other than China. But not for long. Today was supposed to be the last day of the pause before the "Liberation Day" [...]

I’m on a little vacation this week, so there won’t be the normal Tuesday and Thursday Universal Cargo blog. Don’t worry. The Universal Cargo team is still here to take care of [...]

Universal Cargo's blog post on Tuesday was about what's happening with America's trade deal negotiations with China and India. Apparently, that post came one day too early. Yesterday morning, [...]

In the wake of surging shipping demand from China to the U.S., Chinese ports are experiencing congestion. That should push transpacific freight rates, which are already climbing fast, to go even [...]

SHIPPER ALERT: The Trump Administration is dropping tariffs on Chinese goods by more than 100% for 90 days of negotiation. In fact, reciprocal tariffs between the U.S. and China are dropping to [...]

Warning: there are tempting deals offered to importers right now that might look good for businesses' bottom lines but could result in serious legal trouble. Find out all about it in Universal [...]

China is feeling the effects of the Trump Administration's tariff hikes, which have reached 145% on Chinese goods. While tariff retaliation has been President Xi Jinping's response, the [...]

This is a guest post by Michael Carter. Modern supply chains are fundamentally global, and staying competitive is almost impossible without importing some products (or parts) from abroad. As a [...]