Billion-dollar US levies on Chinese ships risk ‘trade apocalypse’

For a symbol of the chaos engulfing world trade since the Trump administration walked into the White House, look no further than a pile of 16,000 metric tonnes of steel pipes. Stevedores in Germany should be preparing to load the first batch on a container ship bound for a massive energy project in Louisiana. Instead, the cargo is sitting in a German warehouse after Washington proposed putting million-dollar levies on Chinese ships docking in the US.