President Trump's negotiating team pulled an eleventh-hour rabbit out of the hat and scuttled a potentially disastrous UN scheme to impose a "carbon tax" on international shipping. The proceeds from that tax would be used to fund other activities by the International Maritime Organization. It was ugly but effective. When the meeting convened, it looked like a done deal. That isn't how it played out.
Using a battering ram of trade and visa threats, the Trump administration on Friday blocked the adoption of a landmark global measure that would have imposed a global pollution tax on the shipping industry.
Countries meeting in London at the International Maritime Organization, an organization of 176 countries under the umbrella of the United Nations, were supposed to take a final vote Friday on a measure requiring cargo ships to lower their greenhouse gas emissions to a certain threshold or pay a fee.
It had been provisionally adopted in April with the backing of the leading shipping lobby and most of America’s allies, including Britain, Canada, the European Union and Japan. China too supported the measure.
The United States, backed by Russia and Saudi Arabia, pushed to delay the adoption by a year. The motion to delay was narrowly passed in a vote of 57 to 49, with other nations absent or abstaining.
The Trump administration brought a raft of threats to dissuade countries from voting for the measure, including visa restrictions and additional fees on flagged ships from those countries landing at U.S. ports.
My colleague Ward Clark covered the preliminaries to the battle royal in Marco Rubio: The US Is a 'Hard NO' on Risky UN Carbon Tax Scheme – RedState.
This is more than a grift, so UN bureaucrats can afford hookers and blow and limousine rides. This was a direct attack on world commerce by the Chinese government.
The idea was that the IMO would impose a 10% tax on all shipping entering port that does not meet the metrics of the "Net Zero Framework." Those tariffs would be passed along to consumers through higher prices. The catch is that the only country capable of making the NZF-required modifications is China.
The proposed IMO tariffs would have funded massive R&D for alternatives to US LNG which is rapidly growing as the market replacement for marine diesel.
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) August 12, 2025
Worse it would have funded ship propulsion research that China could port over to warships. pic.twitter.com/m0iKGZp48x
The danger to the U.S. was an existential one. Most of our commercial fleet is operated by the U.S. Merchant Marine, a quasi-military organization. During war, those ships would become U.S. Navy assets. Adhering to NZF standards would not only push them into Chinese yards for refitting but also require them to change fuels. During wartime, this would mean USMM ships and US Navy ships would need different supply chains.
“why not just opt to build green vessels”
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) October 17, 2025
Because our Merchant Marine is dual use. The US military utterly relies on it. You can’t sail a ship with explosive hydrogen or ammonia or LNG tanks strapped on deck into a war zone!
And because “green” vessels aren’t green. They use… https://t.co/NqIrKhPkhM
To get to this point, the Chinese engineered the win of a Panamanian to head the IMO even though they had a declared candidate.
Never forget how thrilled China’s UN delegation was to “lose” the maritime agency election to Panama.
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) October 17, 2025
The man they’re congratulating is @IMOSecGen, the architect of today’s UN Carbon Tax vote.
Losing was always the plan. https://t.co/MTpYTQXsCL
Inexplicably, the U.S. was not represented by the State Department. Our representative was a dual-national Panamanian. According to reports, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had objected to her representing the U.S. in such a critical matter.
During her tenure at IMO the US endorsed several green initiatives that had massively negative consequences for the US Navy including stricter training requirements (Medina is also head of US Merchant Marine credentialing which has been a disaster) and IMO 2020 which indirectly… pic.twitter.com/kCbdfai5rU
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) August 12, 2025
The U.S. finally recognized the danger in August and made defeating this agreement a top priority.
This is a marked shift. Normally the United States ignores this body and sends a small delegation of USCG SES and relatively Jr state department diplomats over just for committee meetings.
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) August 12, 2025
While other nations have full time Maritime Ambassadors snd teams of delegates… pic.twitter.com/ZzC7PloRJ3
The Trump Administration just issued a potential death blow to the UN’s most ambitious and consequential Green initiative proposed by their powerful maritime arm @IMOHQ in London.
This is a marked shift. Normally the United States ignores this body and sends a small delegation of USCG SES and relatively Jr state department diplomats over just for committee meetings. While other nations have full time Maritime Ambassadors snd teams of delegates permanently stationed in London. Prior [sic] the last voting session State, DHS and @JerryHendrixII’s maritime team at NSC issued a letter warning the IMO to back off extreme measures. Measures so extreme that one proposal suggested any ship that makes “ocean sounds” be banned from entering port.
Not only was the negotiating team on the ball, but they had a big assist from Trump himself.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 16, 2025
I am outraged that the International Maritime Organization is voting in London this week to pass a global Carbon Tax. The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form. We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers OR, the creation of a Green New Scam Bureaucracy to spend YOUR money on their Green dreams. Stand with the United States, and vote NO in London tomorrow!
As veteran naval and maritime trade observer John Konrad said on X:
I can’t share the details on how @michaelgwaltz & @SecRubio have, in just a few days, organized the greatest opposition to UN policy since the Cold War and blocked this UN Carbon Tax.
I can say it was a knife fight to the end.
“I’ve been in this industry for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” one shipping executive told me today. “You just don’t say NO to these guys. It’s unheard of.”
It’s unclear who “these guys” are, but I suspect the European families with shipping investments and net wealth that far exceeds Elon’s.
Absolutely none of the maritime experts I interviewed early this week thought the US could pull this off. Zero. Massive amounts of money, NGO influence, diplomatic threat and media manipulation were behind this… and the American media (except @gCaptain and Fox News) was dead silent.
And yet Trump did it.
“That Trump Truth Social post sent shockwaves through the building,” one UN delegate in London told me. “NOBODY expected it. The Secretary General @IMOSecGen looked like a deer in the headlights this morning.”
Incredible. Simply incredible work by team Trump and a massive blow to the European deep state who planned to use this tax as a slush fund to plug holes in US Aid funding for globalist NGOs.
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