McCain is right about the Jones Act

Sen. John McCain recently introduced legislation again to fully repeal the Jones Act of 1920, the law which restricts domestic waterborne transportation to U.S. built, flagged and owned ships crewed by Americans.

The free market economist in me says that this is an idea whose time has come, protectionism rarely produces the optimum economic outcome. That being said, I think there is a valid argument for a phased sunsetting of the Act to enable our Merchant Marine to restructure to become more competitive. For instance, relaxing the U.S.-built requirement would enable carriers to purchase ships on the worldwide market, dramatically lowering costs for new vessels.

We went through similar stages with the deregulation of the trucking and rail industry in the 80s. We increasingly rely on foreign economies for our goods and U.S. companies have shown that they can adapt and compete profitably in the global marketplace. I believe our merchant marine industry could do the same.

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MR