Government should work for, not against, our merchant marine

摘要

Since the 1980s, there have been foreign-flag ships working in U.S. territorial waters of the Gulf of Mexico's Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Officially permitted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), these vessels have skirted U.S. law by utilizing exemptions to the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, better known as the Jones Act. Transported from U.S. ports to oil and gas rigs working in our territorial OCS waters, huge amounts of oil field equipment and supplies are allowed to be carried on foreign-flag ships. U.S. vessel operators, merchant mariners and industry advocacy groups such as the Offshore Marine Service Association have lobbied for years to have these exemptions eliminated. This year it looked like there finally would be a breakthrough: Two days before President Trump's inauguration, the CBP under President Obama proposed new rules revoking a number of the exemptions.