Trump extends Jones Act waiver, citing national securit

By Alton Wallace
The Center Square

The Trump administration has suspended for an additional 90 days a law forbidding foreign-owned and crewed ships from transporting goods between U.S. ports in an effort to contain price increases and to advance national security aims.

“President Trump issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver,” Taylor Rogers of the White House said Thursday in a social media post.

On March 18, the president announced a 60-day suspension of the Jones Act, a 1920 law requiring that cargo moving between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-built, -owned, and -crewed vessels. Foreign-flagged vessels are often cheaper to charter than American-registered ships.

“New data compiled since the initial waiver was issued revealed that significantly more supply was able to reach U.S. ports faster,” Rogers said.

Extending the waiver provides certainty and stability for the U.S. and global economies, Rogers wrote.

“The Trump administration has taken several actions to mitigate short-term disruptions to the energy markets, and this extension will help ensure vital energy products, industrial materials, and agricultural necessities are maintained,” Rogers said.

The waiver covers 659 product categories that include coal, jet fuel, propane, butane, urea and Anhydrous Ammonia. The 90-day extension takes effect on May 18 and covers the period through Aug. 15.

According to a published report based on data provided by the White House, the initial waiver allowed approximately 40 tankers to deliver oil between U.S. ports, effectively boosting the available domestic fleet by 70%. The White House cites deliveries between ports in California, Texas, Florida and Alaska. The vessels moved over 9 million barrels of American oil and fuel since the initial March waiver, according to the White House.

In the past, Jones Act waivers typically covered a period of 7-14 days and were issued only after events such as hurricanes, storms or other supply disruptions.

Energy producers, agricultural groups and lawmakers from Hawaii, Alaska and other coastal states requested the extension, seeking to minimize price spikes and to mitigate supply chain risks. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said when the waiver was issued in March it would help relieve pressure on supplies of fuel and fertilizer during the critical spring planting season.

While the White House focused on consumer costs on social media accounts, a formal request for the waiver from the Department of War framed the extension as a matter of national security. The department warned that a failure to extend the waiver would “degrade our national defense” by disrupting military planning and support for U.S. Central Command operations in the conflict with Iran. There is currently insufficient U.S.-flagged shipping capacity to meet rising defense needs, according to the War Department.

Since President Donald Trump began his second term, the administration has promoted the “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” program, backed the SHIPS for America Act, and pushed for rebuilding U.S. shipyards, merchant fleets, and sealift readiness.

The American Maritime Partnership, a trade group representing the shipping industry, urged that the waivers be allowed to lapse, saying their existence undermines U.S. maritime policy. The industry group’s president, Jennifer Carpenter, said in a statement that an extension of the waiver would “blow a hole in the Trump agenda to restore American maritime dominance.”

“Waiving the Jones Act exports American jobs to foreign carriers, lets them skirt U.S. laws, and throws open our maritime borders,” said Carpenter. “Any extension would be an affront to hundreds of thousands of hardworking Americans who put this country – not foreign powers – first,” Carpenter said.

Waiving domestic shipping laws won’t change the price of crude oil on world markets, the primary driver of what Americans pay at the pump, Carpenter said. The shipping group estimates Jones Act requirements result in a cost to drivers of an additional one-tenth of a cent per gallon, which it contends is negligible compared to taxes and refining costs.

AAA reported the U.S. national average for a gallon of regular-grade gasoline Friday was at $4.05 per gallon, up for the second day in a row but down from a four-year high of $4.16 a gallon on April 9.

Aaron Smith, president of the Offshore Marine Service Association, a New Orleans-based trade association that represents the offshore energy industry, said in a statement fuel prices have increased in every U.S. market since the waiver took effect in March.

Smith said oil traders and foreign shippers benefitted from the waiver, rather than American consumers. Average U.S. gasoline prices have risen by 32.4 cents since the waiver was issued on March 18, Smith said.

“The initial waiver has not reduced gasoline prices, rather prices have increased in every U.S. market while benefiting NATO countries that have refused to support U.S. military operations,” Smith said. “To put it simply, a waiver extension sells out our American maritime industry and the foundation of our Navy to benefit oil traders and foreign shippers. Now is the time we should strengthen U.S. maritime capacity, not weaken it.”

Louisiana’s nearly 71,000 maritime workers contribute $18.2 billion annually to the state’s economy, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Transportation Institute.