Trump backs off 20% Strait of Hormuz toll, opts for Persian Gulf states' trade and investment deals

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, backed off his plan to charge a "20% fee" on the cargo of every ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a plan he had announced just one day earlier, on Monday, July 13. In a statement he said that based on "highly productive conversations" with regional and Persian Gulf leaders he had decided to replace the fee with "trade and investment deals" those states would make in the United States. Trump did not specify a dollar amount or name the countries involved.

Trump nonetheless said the naval blockade of Iran's ports remains in place. The International Maritime Organization had earlier said there is "no legal basis" for mandatory tolls on natural waterways. Before the recent tensions the Strait of Hormuz carried about 20 percent of the world's oil and gas, and any development there feeds directly into oil prices and Iran's currency and gold markets.