The current waiver expires Aug. 16, and the administration is considering extending it again. But after nearly five months and almost 200 foreign vessel voyages, there is no public evidence that the waiver has delivered any savings at the gasoline pump. President Donald Trump has criticized Big Oil for making “too much money” while people pay higher fuel prices, even urging the companies to return some of those profits to consumers. Refiners have benefited from global market conditions, exports have remained robust, arbitrage opportunities have flourished, and major refiners have reported near record quarterly earnings. The waiver has benefited them, but it has not produced demonstrated savings for drivers.
The waiver has allowed foreign ships and crews to move cargo between American ports. That work is reserved for American-built, American-owned, American-crewed, and American-flagged vessels.
Foreign operators are also operating under the tax exemptions offered by Section 883 of the Internal Revenue Code, even though the waiver has allowed them to enter the domestic trade. American vessel operators pay federal and state taxes, employ American mariners, and comply with American labor and safety requirements. The waiver has therefore created an uneven playing field in America’s own domestic commerce.
The national security implications are just as troubling. The waiver has allowed a Chinese-owned, Chinese-operated, Chinese-built, and Chinese-crewed vessel to carry cargo between Baltimore and Mississippi. It has also allowed a Russian crewed vessel to operate between Florida and Louisiana.
That is difficult to reconcile with an America First economic and national security agenda.
The broader damage will be measured not only in cargoes lost today, but also in ships never built tomorrow. Investors, lenders, and vessel operators will not commit billions of dollars to American shipyards if they believe the federal government will suspend the Jones Act whenever an international crisis disrupts global markets, even when the disruption has no connection to the availability or capacity of the domestic maritime industry.
Uncertainty in federal policy can freeze long-term investment. Markets respond to clear rules. So do shipbuilders, vessel operators, lenders, and the skilled workers they employ.
