The Federal Maritime Commission has proposed charging every Spanish-flagged ship $200,000 each time it arrives at a U.S. port from abroad and limiting imports of Spanish olive oil, perfume, ceramic tile and other goods, after concluding that Spain's refusal to let certain American-flagged cargo vessels dock has created conditions unfavorable to U.S. shipping.
Under the draft rule, the commission could ask the Department of Homeland Security to deny entry to or detain any vessel, whatever its flag, that carried the restricted Spanish goods to the United States, and to refuse clearance to Spanish ships that failed to pay the fee. The fee would rise, and more categories of goods would be added, if the commission found that Spain had retaliated against American carriers or shippers. The commission announced the proposal Wednesday, and the notice was published in the Federal Register on Thursday. Baird Maritime, a shipping trade publication, reported the same enforcement and retaliation terms.
The proposal follows an investigation the commission opened in December 2024, after reports that Spain had turned away three U.S.-flagged Maersk vessels the previous month. The ships were carrying cargo under the Maritime Administration's Maritime Security Program, which keeps commercial vessels available to the government for military use in a national emergency. According to the commission's notice, the initial reports indicated that Spain refused them because they were carrying cargo bound for or coming from Israel, and Spain reportedly cited European Union regulations.
Spain's foreign ministry said in November 2024 that two of the ships, the Maersk Seletar and the Maersk Denver, would not stop in Spain. Both had signaled the port of Algeciras as their destination and changed course in the middle of the Atlantic for Tangier, Morocco, the commission said. A third vessel, the Maersk Hartford, was headed for a Spanish port later that month and rerouted to Morocco instead. Spain had announced a policy of keeping certain vessels out of its ports in May 2024, and it reinforced and expanded that policy in September 2025.
The import limits would reach well beyond olive oil. U.S. imports of Spanish fats and oils came to $1.15 billion in 2025, $836.9 million of it olive oil, according to the commission's figures, which Baird Maritime also reported. Spanish perfume and cosmetics accounted for nearly $940 million, ceramic products for $634.7 million, articles of stone, plaster and cement for $270.6 million, and sugar and confectionery for $138.8 million. Added together, those figures exceed $3 billion. The commission left out packaged medicines and static electrical converters, the only two narrowly defined product lines that topped $1 billion in imports from Spain between 2023 and 2025, citing Americans' health and a continuing shortage of transformers.
The commission stressed that the list is a set of options rather than a final decision. It could restrict every category, only some of them, or impose narrower limits, and it asked for public comment to help it choose.
In its findings, the commission said the inquiry had produced conclusive evidence that Spain denied U.S.-flagged ships access to its ports. Vessel tracking data show that the U.S.-flagged fleet of Maersk Line Limited, all of it enrolled in the security program, averaged 7.25 calls a month at Spanish ports before November 2024 but has made only six in all of 2026, while its calls at Tangier now average 4.17 a month. Confidential submissions confirmed that almost all program vessels stay away from Spain because of the port denials and not for other reasons, the commission said. It considered whether a European emissions trading rule that took effect around the same time could explain the shift and found that explanation unsupported, since other Maersk vessels still call at Spanish ports.
The $200,000 figure is roughly the inflation-adjusted value of the $100,000 per-voyage fee the commission imposed in 1997 on vessels operated by Japanese carriers, in a dispute over Japanese port practices in which, the commission says, similar remedies led to a bilateral resolution. Relatively few Spanish-flagged ships call at U.S. ports, unlike the many Japanese vessels involved then, and the commission acknowledged that the fee by itself would not fully counter the conditions Spain created.
Spain has disputed the commission's authority from the start. In comments on the December 2024 notice, it argued that the commission could not compel its participation, that sovereign immunity put Spain beyond the agency's jurisdiction and that any remedy should come through diplomacy led by the U.S. secretary of state. It also said Spanish, European and international law require it to stop defense and dual-use goods from transiting its ports, that it applies those rules regardless of a ship's flag, and that it rejected individual containers rather than vessels.
The commission said Spain offered no support for those claims and that the evidence showed U.S.-flagged ships themselves had been refused docking. Compliance with a country's own laws is no defense under the statute, the commission added, because the law presumes that the harmful conditions arise from foreign laws or regulations in the first place.
Spain's government is studying the findings, government sources confirmed to Europa Press, according to a report published by 20minutos on Wednesday evening. The government said the proposed fees and restrictions are a matter for relations between the United States and the European Union rather than a bilateral question, and that it would defend Spain's commercial interests together with Brussels. It also said it remains committed to a solid economic and trade relationship with the United States, called the transatlantic alliance strategic and said it wants to avoid an escalation that could hurt Spanish businesses.
Comments on the proposal are due Dec. 14. The commission said the rule falls under a foreign-affairs exception to federal notice-and-comment requirements but chose to seek public input anyway. It is also giving Spain a chance to request a hearing under a separate provision that applies when a foreign government unduly impairs the access of U.S.-flagged ships to trade between foreign ports. A diplomatic settlement could end the dispute, and the commission said it could rescind any final remedies once one is reached, but it does not intend to hold off in hopes of one.
The investigation drew more than 8,000 public comments after it opened. Thousands were nearly identical form letters, most of them opposing the inquiry with arguments that included Spain's sovereign right to enforce an arms embargo, and three current and former members of Congress, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Summer Lee, also opposed it. The commission said such arguments fell outside an investigation focused on the reliability and efficiency of the ocean shipping supply chain. Maritime labor unions backed the inquiry and urged the commission to use every tool at its disposal to get Spain to reverse course.