A Revitalization Plan for U.S. Maritime Trade, Commerce, and Strategic Competition

December 19, 2021

A Revitalization Plan for U.S. Maritime Trade, Commerce, and Strategic Competition, developed by the Northeast Maritime Institute – Center for Ocean Policy and Economics, provides short, medium, and long-term solutions and benefits for the United States. The Revitalization Plan delivers positive national security, trade, sovereign capability, and sustainability outcomes through maritime initiatives. The Plan provides a framework for a coherent and comprehensive national maritime strategy that protects both domestic capacity and enhances international operations.

Proposed Activity Items

Launch Open International U.S. Flag

Immediately establish an open international U.S. flag in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) to provide responsible and transparent oversight to a commercial fleet of foreign and domestically owned and operated vessels.

Modernize Maritime Workforce

Rapidly deploy modern maritime education and training methods in the U.S. and abroad—including in-person, online, mixed-reality and simulator training—to attract new talent and upskill existing maritime workers.

Establish Short Sea Transshipment Hub

Immediately begin construction of a secure, high-throughput, and technologically advanced transshipment hub in the USVI, to increase U.S. trade capacity and resiliency, with an emphasis on secure cargo and efficient, sustainable short sea shipping.

Establish and Implement Green Shipping Strategy

Establish a National Maritime Sustainability Strategy including Green Maritime Highways and a Green Shipping Certification Program for USVI-Flagged Vessels, with requirements and benchmarks for environmentally sustainable construction, operation, management, and planning.

Build Public-Private-International Partnerships

Partner with U.S. interagency counterparts as well as international organizations and collaborators to develop new technologies and a specific set of measurement and assessment tools to address strategic maritime issues, increase transparency, and enforce legal and ethical standards.

Create a Maritime Venture Capital Fund

Establish a Maritime Venture Capital Fund (MVCF) to rapidly build commercially successful solutions that are technologically innovative, economically viable, and globally deployable with a goal of solving maritime and ocean industry problems with a focus on ecological sustainability.