Washington, D.C. — The commercial shipbuilding industry plays an outsize role in the economic and national security of the United States. There is bipartisan support for revitalizing the industry, but doing it well will require more than just tariffs, fees, and one-off investments. A new issue brief from the Center for American Progress examines how the United States’ goal should be to create and sustain a robust domestic shipbuilding industry—using the historic example of the Liberty Ship program to demonstrate how an effective national effort can support the needs of American workers and their families, not just penalize Chinese-made ships.
The issue brief highlights how the Liberty Ship program outfitted commercial shipyards with the latest production technologies and guaranteed demand for ships once produced, while also providing good-paying jobs to American workers that recognized collective bargaining rights and offered health care, child care, and workforce training benefits.
“Revitalizing the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry is important to the country’s economic security,” said Ryan Mulholland, senior fellow for international economic policy at CAP and co-author of the issue brief. “But doing so effectively will require support for more than just the ships themselves. It will require a concerted effort to train, upskill, and support the workers who produce the ships that our country’s consumers and businesses rely on.”
Read the issue brief: “President Trump Says He Wants More U.S. Shipbuilding—Here’s How To Do It Well” by Sophie Cohen and Ryan Mulholland
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].