{"id":7420,"date":"2017-09-28T12:26:52","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T18:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=7420"},"modified":"2017-09-28T12:26:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T18:26:52","slug":"dont-waive-jones-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/dont-waive-jones-act.html","title":{"rendered":"Don’t waive the Jones Act!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/container-ship-cargo-ship-cargo-560789\/<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re like me, your twitter feed and facebook timeline have been chock full of \u201cif Trump really cared about the people of Puerto Rico, he\u2019d waive the Jones Act,\u201d followed by \u201cif Trump really cared about the people of Puerto Rico, he\u2019d waive the Jones Act for longer than 10 days\u201d\u00a0after he did, in fact, waive the Jones Act, that is, override the usual requirement that ships traveling from one US port to another be American-flagged ships.<\/p>\n

As Slate reports,<\/a><\/p>\n

The administration had come under fire in part because it originally refused to waive the Jones Act for more than a week after Hurricane Maria, even though it had granted similar waivers amid Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The Department of Homeland Security had said in those cases the waivers had been justified by the shutting of fuel pipelines in the storms, which could have triggered shortages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And as Vox reports<\/a>,<\/p>\n

According to John Frittelli\u2019s 2014 analysis for the Congressional Research Service, it costs about twice as much to operate a ship complying with the Jones Act as a typical ship used for international cargo. Drewry Maritime Research concluded in 2013 that US-built, Jones-compliant vessels cost about four times as much to build as comparable foreign ships. . . .<\/p>\n

But under the Jones Act, foreign-originating goods must be dropped off in Jacksonville and then shipped to Puerto Rico via an exorbitantly expensive Jones-compliant vessel. Likewise, it costs far more to ship US-produced goods to Puerto Rico than it does to Jamaica.<\/p>\n

This raises the cost of living on Puerto Rico, makes Puerto Rico an unattractive place to produce goods bound for the US mainland, and has the bizarre effect of putting Puerto Rico at a competitive disadvantage to other Caribbean islands as a destination for American tourists.<\/p>\n

In the US Virgin Islands, which are exempt from the law, US-made goods are about half as expensive, while the cost of living in Puerto Rico is 13 percent higher than on the American mainland. Food on Puerto Rico costs twice as much as it does in Florida, and that\u2019s before the devastation of the island\u2019s agriculture by Hurricane Maria.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which all makes it sound very straightforward; Trump should waive the law to bring relief to the people of Puerto Rico, so that other ships, non-American ships, can transport cargo there from the mainland.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re talking about a piece of legislation here.\u00a0 This is the responsibility of Congress<\/strong>.\u00a0 It is up to Congress to decide to include, or exclude Puerto Rico from the portions of the United States which are encompassed in these regulations.\u00a0 If you think it\u2019s unfair that they are included in the law, when, when, unlike mainland U.S., goods cannot be trucked or trained there in response, then don\u2019t gripe about the cruelty of Donald Trump.\u00a0 Write to your Congressman or Senator<\/strong>.\u00a0 Urge a legal change.<\/p>\n

And, in any case, as Bloomberg reports<\/a>, the issue is not, at the moment, a matter of getting goods across the Caribbean.\u00a0 Instead,<\/p>\n

the problem wasn\u2019t getting material to Puerto Rico, but distributing it over the island\u2019s badly damaged roads. Thousands of cargo containers bearing millions of emergency meals and other relief supplies have been piling up on San Juan\u2019s docks since Saturday. The mountains of material may not reach storm survivors for days.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing additional foreign ships into ports struggling to get back to normal operations will likely only exasperate the problem,\u201d the lawmakers wrote in their letter to colleagues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Jones Act is not a short-term issue, but one ingredient in the longer-term issue of Puerto Rico\u2019s economy.\u00a0 And the right answer is not another exercise of Presidential power, but a return to Congress working together.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/container-ship-cargo-ship-cargo-560789\/ (public domain)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re like me, your twitter feed and facebook timeline have been chock full of \u201cif Trump really cared about the people of Puerto Rico, he\u2019d waive the Jones Act,\u201d followed by \u201cif Trump really cared about the people of Puerto Rico, he\u2019d waive the Jones Act for longer than 10 days\u201d\u00a0after he did, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[751,628],"class_list":["post-7420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jones-act","tag-puerto-rico"],"yoast_head":"\nDon't waive the Jones Act!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you're like me, your twitter feed and facebook timeline have been chock full of "if Trump really cared about the people of Puerto Rico, he'd waive the\" \/>\n<meta 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