US industry coalition responds to Trump administration’s Maritime Action Plan

The American Maritime Industrial Coalition (AMIC) has released a whitepaper titled ‘Maritime Industry Readiness Plan: An Industry Assessment of America's Maritime Action Plan’, a comprehensive industry response to America’s Maritime Action Plan (MAP) issued by the White House last week.

Prepared by Dr. Beatriz Canamary of SuRe Strategy Group and published in collaboration with SHIPPINGInsight, the white paper provides a structured, provision-by-provision industry assessment of the MAP. It concludes that the federal framework aligns directly with the systemic barriers and roadmap AMIC independently identified through industry roundtables with 49 maritime leaders, SHIPS Act hearing analysis, and review of the 2025 National Security Strategy.

AMIC publicly presented its Maritime Revitalization Agenda on February 12, one day before the MAP’s release, demonstrating a shared evidence base between federal policy direction and industry findings.

MAP outlines a coordinated effort to rebuild domestic shipbuilding capacity, expand the US-flag fleet, reform procurement, strengthen workforce pipelines, and modernise maritime regulation. It also revives the plan outlined last year to impose port fees on foreign-built commercial vessels calling US ports.

AMIC’s ‘Maritime Industry Readiness Plan’ outlines three central conclusions: first, the MAP validates the Maritime Revitalization Agenda AMIC has been building since October 2025; second, at least 16 of the MAP’s 20 provisions require coordinated private-sector execution that no federal agency is structurally positioned to deliver; and third, the MAP’s 12–18 month implementation window demands early, visible progress, making immediate industry coordination essential.

The assessment maps each of the MAP’s pillars - Rebuild Shipbuilding, Workforce, Protect the Maritime Industrial Base, National Security, and Deregulation - against AMIC’s five identified systemic barriers: Fragmented Governance, Workforce Shortage, Innovation and Capital Gaps, Incentive Misalignment, and US-Flag Sustainability.

The white paper concludes that while the MAP provides policy architecture, a neutral, industry-led coordination mechanism is required to operate it at speed.

AMIC positions itself as that coordination layer, structured around five core functions: capacity mapping to establish a national operational baseline across shipyards and suppliers; partnership facilitation connecting yards, allied builders, investors, and workforce programs; policy translation converting federal signals into investment-grade intelligence; innovation acceleration bridging proven technology to operational deployment; and progress measurement tracking industrial benchmarks aligned to MAP targets.

AMIC says it will continue advancing the Maritime Industry Readiness Plan through leadership convenings and implementation-focused forums throughout 2026, including SHIPPINGInsight’s Houston Leadership Roundtable taking place February 25th, National Maritime Week in Washington, DC May 19th – 22nd, at Posidonia in Athens on June 4th, and the SHIPPINGInsight Conference in Houston in October. The full white paper is available at www.MaritimeCoalition.US.