Reforming the Jones Act: Mini vs. integrated mills

摘要

Senators Jesse Helms (R-N. C.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the Coastal Shipping Competition Act (S. 1813) in the U.S. Senate on May 23rd. The next week, the Steel Manufacturers Assn. (SMA) sent letters to all senators urging them to support the bill, which would reform Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Arc of 1920-the so-called Jones Act. The Jones Act requires that all merchandise transported by water between U.S. ports must travel in U.S.-built, -flagged, -manned, and -citizen-owned vessels. There's a lively debate now between SMA and the Jones Act Reform Coalition (JARC) on the one side and the Lake Carriers Assn. and labor unions on the other. The JARC says it speaks for a broad coalition of 860,000 companies that ship chemicals, steel, agricultural products, and other products, as well as U.S. maritime companies. The Lake Carriers Assn. (LCA) represents 14 companies that own 59 U.S.-flagged vessels that can move 115 million net tons of cargo on the Gteat Lakes. About half the LCA companies are subsidiaries of U.S. integrated mills, including Inland Steel, U.S. Steel, National, and Bethlehem; their ships haul iron ore, coal, and limestone. Other LCA ships haul cement and other cargoes. None of the LCA ships is certified for salt-water voyages on the oceans.