> Before I do, let me say that I am forever grateful for the tremendous work that scholars at the Cato Institute have done—and continue to do—to expose the Jones Act’s many flaws. ... A special mention goes also to Scott Lincicome who, more than anyone, has made fighting the Jones Act hip on Twitter.
> Other scholars have worked on this effort, of course. For instance, in 2018 the Mercatus Center published a piece by Thomas Grennes called “An Economic Analysis of the Jones Act” urging the reform of a law that “imposed large losses on American consumers.” My Mercatus colleagues Alden Abbott and Andrew Mercado also recently published a policy brief that delineates the negative economic effects of the Jones Act
This looks like typical free market libertarian dogma, so color me unconvinced. Especially since the reasoning seems all about consumer prices, which libertarians seem to often forget are not the only policy priority.
> The Jones Act is a 102-year-old federal measure that aims to promote and maintain the American merchant marine fleet for commercial and defense purposes. To achieve this goal, it restricts the waterborne transportation of cargo within the U.S. to vessels that are U.S.-flagged, U.S.-built, at least 75% U.S.-crewed and at least 75% U.S.-owned. The concrete results are that a foreign ship can enter a U.S. port to drop off its foreign cargo, it can even from there sail to different U.S. ports to drop off other foreign goods, but it is not allowed to pick up any domestic goods in a U.S. port and bring those goods to another U.S. destination if it doesn’t meet the four conditions listed above.
Personally, I think it's probably time to strengthen the Jones Act. It seems written for a time where a larger fraction of American sea trade consisted of domestically-produced goods. Now that we've unwisely outsourced much of our manufacturing ability, so maybe it should be modified to also mandate a certain percentage of all cargo, foreign and domestic be transported by US-flagged, US-built, US-crewed, US-owned ships. That should increase US sea transport capacity, and the greater volume should help drive down the costs of US-build ships.
> Other scholars have worked on this effort, of course. For instance, in 2018 the Mercatus Center published a piece by Thomas Grennes called “An Economic Analysis of the Jones Act” urging the reform of a law that “imposed large losses on American consumers.” My Mercatus colleagues Alden Abbott and Andrew Mercado also recently published a policy brief that delineates the negative economic effects of the Jones Act
This looks like typical free market libertarian dogma, so color me unconvinced. Especially since the reasoning seems all about consumer prices, which libertarians seem to often forget are not the only policy priority.
> The Jones Act is a 102-year-old federal measure that aims to promote and maintain the American merchant marine fleet for commercial and defense purposes. To achieve this goal, it restricts the waterborne transportation of cargo within the U.S. to vessels that are U.S.-flagged, U.S.-built, at least 75% U.S.-crewed and at least 75% U.S.-owned. The concrete results are that a foreign ship can enter a U.S. port to drop off its foreign cargo, it can even from there sail to different U.S. ports to drop off other foreign goods, but it is not allowed to pick up any domestic goods in a U.S. port and bring those goods to another U.S. destination if it doesn’t meet the four conditions listed above.
Personally, I think it's probably time to strengthen the Jones Act. It seems written for a time where a larger fraction of American sea trade consisted of domestically-produced goods. Now that we've unwisely outsourced much of our manufacturing ability, so maybe it should be modified to also mandate a certain percentage of all cargo, foreign and domestic be transported by US-flagged, US-built, US-crewed, US-owned ships. That should increase US sea transport capacity, and the greater volume should help drive down the costs of US-build ships.