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Respicio bats for shipping equality for Guam port
GUAM—Sen. Rory J. Respicio has requested the assistance of Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo to “make a case for equality in the shipping of cargo between and among all American ports.”
While the Northern Marianas and the territories of American Samoa and the United States Virgin Islands …possess special exemptions from the Jones Act…the domestic jurisdictions of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the states of Hawaii and Alaska are not exempt, and must pay the full Jones Act freight rates,” said Respicio.
Officially known as the “Merchant Marine Act of 1920,” the Jones Act requires that cargo shipped between any of the 48 continental United States and U.S. insular areas (Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the CNMI and Puerto Rico) must be transported on U.S.-built and -owned vessels, and must be primarily operated by U.S. crews, except for the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico, which have Jones Act exemptions.
According to Respicio, these constraints make the U.S. shipping industry among the most expensive on the planet for areas without exemptions.
Guam is the U.S. insular area on which the Jones Act continues to have the greatest fiscal impact, Respicio said. He pointed out that the Northern Marianas, just a few miles north of Guam, has a Jones Act exemption, while Guam, geographically the largest of the Marianas islands, is not included. (PR)
