▲ This photo, released by UPI, shows U.S. President Donald Trump speaking during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on July 13, 2026. (Yonhap)

Trump-Hormuz Strait

Trump says he decided to replace 20 pct 'reimbursement' fee with investment deals with Gulf states

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has decided to replace a proposed 20 percent "reimbursement" fee on cargo shipped through the Strait of Hormuz with trade and investment deals with Middle Eastern countries.

Trump made the remarks in a social media post, a day after he announced that the United States will serve as the "guardian" of the strait and be "reimbursed" at a 20 percent rate on all cargo shipped through the waterway that Iran all but closed amid the Middle East conflict.

"Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20 percent United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future. As everyone is aware, we have the largest Dollar Investment into the United States, of any Country in History, but these new Investments will make that Number even larger," he added.

The president claimed that with the future investments, the U.S. will see "factories, plants and equipment" pour into the U.S. "at historic levels," which will create additional millions of high-paying American jobs.

Trump's plan for the reimbursement fee had caused concerns among countries that rely heavily on the Strait of Hormuz for energy imports. Some saw the move as contradictory to senior U.S. officials' recent remarks that no country is allowed to charge tolls on the strait that they called an "international waterway."

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