The Jones Act says that shipping between U.S. ports — say between Galveston, Texas, and San Juan, Puerto Rico — must use U.S.-built ships flying under the U.S. flag with an American crew. Ships coming from other countries rather than from U.S. ports can freely travel to Puerto Rico and are not subject to the Jones Act. In fact, most cargo ships reaching the port of San Juan are from other countries. The Walmart Corporate office, to consider one retailer in Puerto Rico, says that the Jones Act does not affect their prices.
Yet we frequently see people claiming that the Jones Act says that foreign ships can’t sail directly to Puerto Rico but must first transport their goods to the U.S. mainland and only then can sail on to Puerto Rico using U.S. ships and crew. This is entirely false.
It is confusing to see this big a gap between the reality of the law and the perception of the law. You may like the Jones Act or dislike it, but how can so many people be so misinformed about what the law says?
The Navigation Acts
In the 17th century, Britain passed the Navigation Acts. These laws were intended to hold exclusive rights to the colonial market and to make sure that Britain received all the benefits of their investment in the Americas. By the 18th century, when England’s North American colonies were getting unhappy with being colonies, these laws were being more strongly enforced and additional, similar laws were passed.
The Navigation Acts said that colonists could only receive cargo from British-owned abd British-crewed ships. The owners and crew could be British colonists, but they could not be from foreign countries. Americans who wanted to by Italian olive oil could only get it in the form of oil sent to Italy, taxed by England, and shipped to the British colonies on British ships.
Sounds familiar, right? For one thing, it may sound familiar because this is the backdrop to the Boston Tea Party. This famous event was a reaction to the Tea Act of 1773, which followed directly from the original Navigation Acts.
It may also sound familiar because these laws did roughly what so many people now claim the Jones Act does. They restricted trade between the colonies and other nations and kept the New World colonies as a captive market for England.
What’s the point of the Jones Act?
The Jones Act is intended to make sure that the Unite States has qualified sailors and shipbuilders, as well as navigable ships, for economic reasons and in case of war. Since some other nations can build ships and hire crew members more cheaply than the U.S., the government believed that foreign competition could make the shipping industry impractical in the United States. If a navy were needed for national security, the U.S. could find herself unable to find people who could build or sail the ships.
The Jones Act, by limiting shipping between U.S. ports to U.S. ships, encouraged and protected the U.S. shipping industry.
People in San Juan, or in any other U.S. port, can buy olive oil directly from Italy whenever they like. The Jones Act does not restrict that trade at all. People in Galveston, or in any other U.S. port, can buy goods shipped from Puerto Rico, too, and you will not hear people complaining that they can’t do so because of the Jones Act.
Next time you talk about the Jones Act, make sure you’re not actually thinking about the Navigation Acts.
No responses yet