‘America First’ promise collides with waiver allowing foreign ships to haul U.S. cargo

The Trump administration claimed that it puts American workers first, but for 150 days and counting, a sweeping waiver of the 1920 Jones Act has allowed foreign-flagged vessels, including those with ties to Chinese state-owned entities, to haul fuel and fertilizer between U.S. ports.

The administration extended the waiver through mid-August, and the data is now public.

Forty-five voyages. Thirty-five foreign vessels. More than a dozen cargo types. The U.S. Maritime Administration published the voyage-level records. An interactive infographic built from those records lets any citizen track every barrel, every port, every ship. What the data shows is this: American demand that the law suppressed for decades sprang to life the moment the waiver dropped.

The Jones Act requires that any goods moved by water between U.S. ports be carried on vessels that are American-built, American-owned, and crewed by American mariners. It is 106 years old. The Trump administration suspended it on March 17 for energy products, fertilizer, and related inputs. The stated reason was to lower gasoline prices as the war in Iran cut world oil supplies.

Gasoline prices on March 16 averaged $3.72 per gallon, but once they hit $4.48, it should be clear that the waiver did not lower prices.

Yet the administration extended the waiver anyway. White House press secretary Taylor Rogers said new data showed more supply reached U.S. ports faster. The data also shows that foreign operators got rich doing it.

Consider the Gulf Coast to the West Coast. Under the waiver’s first 50 days, foreign tankers moved 1.59 million barrels of diesel and petroleum products from Texas and Louisiana to California. That is four times the volume moved by water in all of last year. The demand was always there. The Jones Act simply made it illegal to meet it.

Consider Puerto Rico. The United States is one of the world’s largest propane exporters. But there are no Jones Act-compliant LPG tankers. So Puerto Rico, an American territory, could not receive American propane by sea. It was bought from Chile instead. Under the waiver, two LPG tankers moved propane from Houston to San Juan and Tallaboa. Those deliveries exceeded the previous six years of shipments combined.

Consider fertilizer. Three voyages carried anhydrous ammonia, a critical farm input. American farmers got a product that the Jones Act had previously blocked.

The American Maritime Partnership, which represents domestic vessel operators, called the waiver a “gut punch to American workers.” The Seafarers International Union said the policy sends the wrong signal to every young American considering a career at sea. The Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association pointed to the gasoline price data and said, “The facts speak for themselves.”

The facts also show who benefited. Maritime Administration data indicate that approximately 29 percent of completed waiver voyages involved vessels with ties to the People’s Republic of China — through ownership, joint ventures, or shipyards. Ninety-five percent of completed voyages directly benefited foreign maritime companies that pay no U.S. federal taxes, comply with no U.S. immigration laws, and face no U.S. Coast Guard safety inspections.

Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, pressed a Crowley Maritime executive at a June 2 hearing. “If the waiver is extended again,” she asked, “what would that mean for investments in shipyards and workforce development?”

Clay Heil, the vice president for government relations at Crowley, answered: “Investment will flee. Our U.S. mariners will wonder if they will have jobs. Without the Jones Act, we don’t need a Merchant Marine Academy.”

The Jones Act supports an estimated 650,000 American jobs and $154 billion in annual economic output. The U.S. shipbuilding industry currently builds about 0.2 percent of the world’s commercial ocean-going tonnage. China builds 1,794 ships at a time. South Korea builds 734. The United States builds five.

The administration says it wants to restore American maritime dominance. But every foreign tanker moving under this waiver is a bet against that promise. The data is now public. The infographic does not lie.

The voyages represent American products reaching American customers that the law previously made impossible to serve. Every one of them is a transaction that the market wanted, and the government blocked.

The Trump administration extended the waiver to mid-August. Maritime labor and industry say they will fight it. The gasoline prices have not fallen. The foreign ships keep sailing. And the men and women who crew American vessels wait to see if their country still means what it says about putting them first.