President Trump floated a 20% toll on all cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz on July 13. By the next evening, roughly 26 hours later, the idea was dead.
The toll was pitched as a way to make other countries pay for US naval protection in one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes. Middle Eastern leaders apparently had thoughts about that, and those thoughts were persuasive enough to kill the plan before the ink dried.
Why the strait matters more than almost anything
The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow chokepoint between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. When someone even whispers about disrupting traffic through it, energy traders start sweating.
The International Maritime Organization, the UN agency responsible for shipping regulations, stated explicitly that there is no legal basis for imposing mandatory tolls on transit through the strait. International maritime law generally protects the right of transit passage through straits used for international navigation.