THE 94-year-old Jones Act that insists on the use of American-crewed, American-flagged and American-built and repaired American ships for domestic trade, is an anachronism that hurts US farmers and manufacturers, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain told an American Heritage Foundation meeting, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.
"Laws like this had some rationale in the 1920s, but today they only serve to raise shipping costs. It's not rocket science," said Sen McCain, citing a 2002 study by the US International Trade Commission, which suggests that abolishing the Jones Act would cut shipping costs by 22 per cent.
Said American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers president Charles Drevna: "The expiration date on the Jones Act is long overdue. We sell fighter jets to foreign nations. We buy components of ships and planes from foreign defence contractors. We even use Russian rocket engines. So whatever sense the Jones Act may have made decades ago for national defense purposes no longer applies."
Said Peterson Institute for International Economics scholar Gary Clyde Hufbauer: "With global free trade in services, we could increase our exports by about $300 billion. But as long as we have the Jones Act and these other sacred cows in place, it will be really hard, if not impossible, to get other countries to liberalise to the extent we would like."
Under the Jones Act, officially the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, all vessels used for domestic shipping must be built in the United States, owned by US citizens and be at least 75 per cent crewed by US citizens.
WORLD SHIPPING
10 December 2014 - 22:05
McCain to American Heritage Foundation: Jones Act does harm, not good
THE 94-year-old Jones Act that insists on the use of American-crewed, American-flagged and American-built and repaired American ships for domestic trade, is an anachronism that hurts US farmers and manufacturers, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain told an American Heritage Foundation meeting, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.
WORLD SHIPPING
10 December 2014 - 22:05
McCain to American Heritage Foundation: Jones Act does harm, not good
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