A union proposal seeking to blunt China’s growing dominance in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors is finding bipartisan support among U.S. Congressional lawmakers, based on remarks made at a recent U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing.

The Congressional hearing, as well as the unions’ petition before the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), reflect a growing concern among lawmakers and the private sector that China’s exponential growth in shipbuilding and in producing ship-to-shore cranes and shipping containers ultimately threatens U.S. national security.

Unions had petitioned USTR in March, arguing that the Chinese government “has funneled hundreds of billions of dollars” toward bolstering its shipbuilding industry so that now China dominates the world’s production of commercial vessels while the U.S.’s share is only 1%. The unions are pressing the USTR to take action against China’s practices under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 by enforcing measures such as assessing a port fee on Chinese-built ships that dock at a U.S. port and creating a shipbuilding revitalization fund.

Congressional lawmakers affirmed the unions’ request at the June 26 hearing held by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and entitled “From High Tech to Heavy Steel: Combatting the PRC’s Strategy to Dominate Semiconductors, Shipbuilding and Drones.”