[150412.EN.SEA] Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska Asked To Join Guam Plea For Jones Act Waivers

GUAM is asking its representatives and those from Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska to support efforts to win exemptions from the restrictive Jones Act that requires commercial vessels between these ports and the US mainland to be flagged, owned, crewed and built by Americans.

By waiving the law's provisions, barriers to providing competitive low-cost ocean freight service would be removed, said Guam Republican Senator Frank Blas in a resolution he wants Guam Democratic Congresswoman Madeline Bordallo to present to the US House of Representatives.

Guam is unable to benefit from its current exemption in lowering shipping costs "because other non-contiguous US ports that shippers would need to connect to make a shipping route sustainable are subject to all the restrictions," Mr Blas said.

The rates for shipping a container part-way across the ocean from the US west coast are rising which means the end-consumer suffers, said Mr Blas.

Proponents of the Jones Act uphold its importance for national security and job numbers but Mr Blas says it is outdated - "a vestige of the post-World War I years, when the vulnerability of US shipping to German U-boats was still in the public's mind".

Jones Act lobbyists such as the Navy League and the American Maritime Partnership (AMP) stressed the importance of the act to foster shipbuilding for the navy and the US Coast Guard.

"Shipbuilding, ship repair and ship modernisation create well-paying jobs for thousands of workers and, when added to the equipment and material supply companies, add a large number of jobs to the US work force," said an AMP statement.

Charlotte, NC-based Horizon Lines, a Jones Act carrier, discontinued its (FSX) transpacific container shipping service between the US west coast, Guam and China last autumn following the end of a long-term space charter agreement with Maersk Line on its eastbound leg from China.

The expected growth in Guam from infrastructure improvements in connection with the military redeployment from Japan's Okinawa base has been delayed by budget problems in Japan and the US, particularly in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami.

Source : HKSG.