US President Donald Trump has extended for a further 90 days a temporary waiver of the Jones Act, which allows cargo to be carried between US ports on foreign-flagged vessels. The move is intended to help reduce the cost of transporting energy resources and other goods.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this, Bloomberg reports.
The extension will take effect at midnight on Monday New York time. The previous waiver was due to expire two days earlier, so the decision will avoid any interruption in its application.
The Jones Act, passed more than a century ago, stipulates that cargo between US ports must be carried by vessels owned by American owners, sailing under the US flag and operated by American companies.
Trump first temporarily suspended these requirements in March. In August, the administration narrowed the waiver: since then, each shipment has required a separate check for the availability of suitable US vessels. The scope of the relaxation was not changed under the new extension.
According to government data, since the waiver took effect foreign vessels have made around 338 voyages. They carried, among other things, Texas oil to Pennsylvania and propane to Puerto Rico.
California received the largest share of additional deliveries: compared with the same period last year, the state received 23 million more barrels of petroleum products. By comparison, last year during that period the volume of such deliveries was 8 million barrels.
Overall, since the waiver took effect, an additional roughly 90 million barrels of products—mostly petroleum products—have been shipped between US ports. The biggest beneficiaries of the relaxed requirements have been supplies of petrol, crude oil and renewable fuel.
The decision reflects the administration’s concern about high energy costs amid the war with Iran. Prices are also being affected by supply disruptions caused by the war and damage to oil-refining capacity in Russia.
Oil and gas and chemical companies support extending the waiver. They argue that being able to use foreign vessels makes it possible to ship oil, fertiliser and other goods between US ports more quickly and cheaply.
At the same time, shipbuilding companies and their supporters in Congress oppose extending the relaxation. In their view, the waiver undermines decades-long protection of US shipping and could weaken the domestic shipbuilding industry.
Bloomberg notes that Trump’s Jones Act waiver has become the longest and most wide-ranging easing of the law in more than 70 years. Previously, US presidents have waived its requirements mainly for individual voyages or for short periods—particularly after hurricanes or pipeline accidents that disrupted fuel supplies.