German shipowner Thomas Rehder found harsh words to criticise US-inspired trade wars on Monday, highlighting growing anxiety Washington policies cause amid maritime players, especially in Europe.
“The leading economy in the world has been resorting to schoolyard bullying measures,” said Rehder, managing partner at Carsten Rehder Schiffsmakler und Reederei Gmbh, speaking at a panel at the Maritime Cyprus conference.
“I think it’s very detrimental and counter-productive when trade policy is driven by low instinct and nationalistic bias.”
He cited Iran’s isolation as example of an “extremely short-sighted policy”, which has caused a once flourishing maritime market to disappear from the radar.
Other panellists speaking at the conference admitted that sanctions can benefit shipping, as evidenced in the mini-boom of VLCC freight rates after the US announced sanctions on China’s Cosco.
Such bonanzas, however, are bound to be short-lived and spread to narrow parts of the business only, such as tankers, they said.
“Trade wars might create niches of opportunity but you never know where things will end,” said George Procopiou of Dynacom Tankers Management. “Peace is the priority. Only then do you have real growth, with people investing, expanding their businesses and looking at the future with optimism”, Procopiou added.
