Trump scraps 20% Hormuz shipping toll, replaces it with Gulf states' US investment deals

Summary

Donald Trump reversed a policy he announced the previous day on July 14, scrapping a proposed 20% levy on all cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz in favour of investment deals from Gulf states in the US. Tribune India, citing ANI, reported Trump declared the strait open to all traffic except Iran, while Fox Business noted he simultaneously reaffirmed a full maritime blockade on Iranian cargo. WWD and CBS News confirmed the walkback; CBS reported industry experts had called the toll legally baseless and warned it would cost operators millions per transit. Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd said tolls on international waters were "fundamentally wrong," per CNBC. Brazil's Lula called the original plan piracy, one of the first official government objections from outside the Gulf, according to Yeni Safak. India's Outlook noted vessel traffic through the strait had already fallen sharply since the war began.

The split

US outlets (Fox Business, WWD, CBS News) focused on the policy reversal itself and the lack of legal basis for the fee. Al Jazeera asked whether the toll could ever have found takers, examining Gulf state and shipping operator compliance. Yeni Safak led with Brazil's Lula, putting a Global South objection front and centre. India's Outlook framed the toll risk in the context of a waterway already under severe economic strain. Tribune India (via ANI) was the first to carry Trump's replacement announcement verbatim, giving it a notably prominent role in the reversal's documentation.

By the numbers

• 20%, the proposed Hormuz cargo levy, now scrapped
• 130 vessels per day, the pre-war transit rate through the Strait of Hormuz, per Outlook India
• 3 consecutive nights, US strikes on Iran had been conducted before the reversal

Why it matters

The toll was proposed and reversed within 24 hours, suggesting intense pushback from the Gulf states whose investment Trump needs and from the shipping industry whose cooperation would have been required. The blockade on Iranian cargo remains in place, keeping the strait functionally open for non-Iranian traffic while maintaining military pressure on Tehran. The episode exposed the limits of unilateral US power to tax a strait governed by international maritime law.

What to watch

• Whether Gulf states formalise investment pledges to the US as promised in the replacement deal
• Iran's response to the continued blockade on Iranian cargo
• Shipping industry decisions on transit routing: through Hormuz or the Cape of Good Hope diversion
• Legal challenges to the blockade itself, separate from the now-abandoned toll