US To Charge 20% Fee On Hormuz Shipping As Trump Declares America “Guardian” Of Strait

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States will restore its naval blockade of Iranian shipping and impose a 20 percent fee on all other cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz, sharply escalating a dispute over control of the world’s most important oil corridor.

Trump called the tax a payback for costs of guarding the waterway. It painted the United States as the strait’s protector, responsible for defending a volatile stretch of water. The fee would apply to all cargo moving through the strait. The fee would be imposed immediately, he said.

The announcement, made in a Truth Social post and echoed in a Fox News interview, was apart from the blockade and general shipping traffic. Only Iranian ships and their customers would be barred from entering or leaving, Trump said, while other nations would keep open use of the strait.

Almost one-fifth of the world’s energy exports passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the US-Israel-Iran war broke out. The narrow channel separates Iran from Oman and serves as the main sea passage out of the Gulf for most regional oil producers.

The International Maritime Organisation responded within hours, saying under existing international law, passage through international straits must continue to be toll- and charge-free. Separately, a spokesman for the UN shipping agency said there is no legal basis to impose mandatory tolls solely for transiting a strait.

That is a stance the Trump administration itself took weeks earlier. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in June that that no country is allowed to impose tolls on an international waterway, comments he made at the time while criticising Iranian plans to levy similar fees.

Oman formally told the IMO earlier this month it opposes transit fees in the strait, a position at odds with Iran, which has discussed a joint service fee arrangement with Muscat that some reports value at up to $40 billion a year.

Trump’s declaration came after a dramatic escalation over the weekend. Iran carried out missile and drone attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Jordan on July 12. The UAE issued a missile alert on that day but later said the threats detected were outside its national borders and the situation was stable.

The barrage came after a third round of US airstrikes on Iran, which Central Command said targeted about 140 sites, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition depots and coastal surveillance equipment. The strikes followed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard firing on a Cyprus-flagged container ship that was attempting what it called an unauthorised route through the strait, setting the vessel ablaze and forcing its crew to abandon it.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Sunday the strait would remain closed until the US military involvement in the region ceases, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. Central Command denied the claim, saying the strait is still open to traffic along a southern transit corridor through Omani waters.

The stand-off goes back to a US naval blockade of Iranian ports first imposed on April 13, which Iran said was a violation of a ceasefire declared five days earlier. A mid-June memorandum of understanding was supposed to end that blockade and reopen the strait to unrestricted shipping for a 60-day negotiating window, but renewed strikes on both sides have since put pressure on the deal.

The conflict has intensified, and shipping through the strait has thinned sharply.  The competing claims to control the waterway add new uncertainty to war-risk premiums and voyage planning for shipowners and insurers, with vessels increasingly being diverted or rerouted through Oman’s southern corridor as both Washington and Tehran claim authority over the strait.