Kill the Jones Act Now!

The purpose of the 1920 Jones Act was to protect American shipping interests by giving them a monopoly on US port-to-port traffic. The Act requires that all ships transporting goods between U.S. ports have to be constructed in the United States and owned and crewed by U.S. citizens (or permanent residents).

The Act, however, wasn’t enough to save the US industry. As a result, we have the worst possible situation. Extremely expensive US port-to-port shipping and only a tiny US shipping industry to show for it. By one account, there are less than one hundred Jones-Act-eligible ships.

The expense of US water transport pushes shippers to move goods by air and coastal highway which is wasteful but usually not deadly. But as Salim Furth points out the Jones Act could be deadly for Puerto Rico:

Even though Trump granted a brief waiver from the Jones Act following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it would not grant a Jones Act waiver to Puerto Rico. It justified its decision on the basis that the Jones Act fleet is sufficient to the task.

But the Jones Act fleet already imposes much higher shipping costs on Puerto Rico than on nearby islands, and it operates near capacity in normal times. To involve mainland American workers and businesses in Puerto Rico’s recovery requires a rapid increase in capacity and speed—something far beyond the ability of America’s moribund crony capitalist shippers.

If the cost to Puerto Rico doesn’t get President Trump’s attention then perhaps this will–The Jones Act benefits socialist Venezuela!

Puerto Rico’s badly damaged energy sector relies on oil imports from Venezuela, a socialist dictatorship that uses its revenue to prop up anti-Americanism in Latin America. If issued a waiver, Puerto Rico could switch to cheaper, cleaner natural gas from sources such as Pennsylvania and Texas.

The Jones Act shouldn’t be temporarily lifted, the Jones Act should be killed.