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On April 9, President Donald Trump signed a new executive order aimed at boosting the country’s shipbuilding capacity. Some members of Congress also are seeking to promote U.S. shipbuilding, including re-introducing the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act last week. We asked four experts: What is one crucial step that the Trump administration should take to revive the U.S. shipbuilding industry?Read more below.Martin Bollinger Retired management consultant, university lecturer, and author in the field of maritime and naval historyAs we seek to revitalize commercial shipbuilding, will we treat allies as partners or competitors? Seven American shipyards produced large commercial ships in this century — only three are owned by U.S. investors. The shipyard in Brownsville, Texas is Singaporean. Sturgeon Bay on Lake Michigan has Italian owners. In Mobile, Alabama, the owners are Australian. Philly Shipyard was sold by Norwegian investors to South Korean owners. A Quebec shipyard, with British owners from Monaco, wants to buy a U.S.-based shipyard.Commercial shipbuilding in the United States is a global business. Will we seek to build partnerships or barriers going forward? An ideal strategy for rebuilding U.S. industry would attract and retain both global talent and long-term global capital, facilitated by stable and bipartisan policies in our relationships with these critical allies.William Henagan Research fellow at the Council on Foreign RelationsThe United States must find an effective way to level the playing field for U.S. shipbuilding by imposing costs on Chinese shipyards. Port fees on Chinese-built ships that dock in U.S. ports will be difficult to implement — and since the United States imports very few maritime assets, unilateral tariffs don’t work either. The Trump administration should coordinate a multilateral trade effort to change the purchasing incentives for major international ocean carriers. A multilateral tariff arrangement is needed to create a fair, high-standard global shipbuilding market.The