By VOICES Staff.
A new study by Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI), commissioned by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), finds that 105 nations now have cabotage laws — up from 91 in 2018 — covering 85 percent of the world’s coastlines. These are laws that reserve a nation’s domestic shipping routes for its own vessels, mariners, and/or shipyards — precisely what the United States has done under the Jones Act since 1920.
“Countries appear no longer to be viewing cabotage as merely economic policy,” said Deirdre Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of SRI and co-author of the report. “They see it as essential to national security and strategic autonomy in an increasingly unstable geopolitical environment.”
The Cabotage Laws of the World (2025) report traces the growth and legacy of cabotage laws from East Asia to South America, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific. The conclusion is clear: when crises hit, the nations that can move their own goods, on their own ships, crewed by their own people, are the ones that endure.
“The United States remains the global benchmark for strong cabotage and maritime policy, and it is no surprise that nations confronting today’s geopolitical challenges are reinforcing their own cabotage frameworks to preserve sovereignty and safeguard critical maritime infrastructure,” said David Heindel, President of the Seafarers International Union and Chair of the ITF Seafarers’ Section.
The ITF’s companion report, Domestic Maritime Policies: A Focus on National Security, expands on this finding, documenting how nations like Australia, South Korea and Brazil are strengthening their domestic fleets and seafarer workforces to reduce dependency on foreign-flag shipping. The ITF warns that overreliance on flags of convenience or “dark fleets” exposes countries to unsafe, opaque, and even illicit maritime operations that can threaten both commerce and national defense.
This reflects a simple truth the 650,000 men and women of American Maritime have long understood: maritime sovereignty is not a luxury but a national security necessity.
“The United States must take the lead in securing our own maritime border and domestic supply chain and not let foreign governments or foreign carriers decide our fate. Just as we wouldn’t allow foreign airlines to transport passengers between U.S. cities or foreign trucks to ply U.S. highways, the same principle has long applied for maritime,” said Jennifer Carpenter, president of the American Maritime Partnership.
Carpenter credits President Trump and bipartisan leaders in Congress for maintaining that commitment through infrastructure investment, shipbuilding expansion, and workforce programs that keep Americans employed across the maritime sector.
Across the Atlantic, the United Kingdom offers a stark warning of what happens when a maritime nation abandons its national fleets.
Decades after repealing its domestic shipping preferences, Britain has watched its once-dominant merchant fleet dwindle. World-famous shipyards in Scotland have become shells of their former selves. The nation that once ruled the seas now depends on foreign-flag carriers and Chinese Communist Party-owned shipyards for its coastal and short-sea trade.
The loss of cabotage didn’t make Britain more competitive; it hollowed out its industrial base, eroded skilled labor, and left the United Kingdom reliant on foreign carriers to connect its own islands.
As 105 countries reinforce their own cabotage laws, more and more leaders are waking up: the nations that build, crew, and sail their own ships will shape the future — and the ones that don’t will sink.
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