The Korea Times
For more than a century, the Jones Act has survived on purported economic and security grounds. Its waiver by the Trump administration for Operation Epic Fury reveals serious flaws in both rationales. Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, as it’s formally known, requires that goods shipped between U.S. ports travel on vessels that are U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, and crewed predominantly by U.S. citizens. Because of this legally enforced domestic shipping monopoly, building and operating ships in America today costs far more than doing so abroad, and domestic coastwise shipping is effectively nonexistent outside the few places that have no choice, such as Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Rather than bolstering U.S. commercial shipping capacity and the merchant marine, the Jones Act has presided over the steady degradation of both. Supporters of the law claim it’s essential for national security and has negligible economic costs. They’ve also vigorously opposed waivers of the law, which are permitted in the "interest of national defense," arguing that exemptions un
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