The Jones Act Exemption Discussion, Continued

Following our learning of the Hawaii State Legislature's interest in proposing an exemption of noncontiguous territories from the US-Build Requirements of the Jones Act, the OGSR reached out to the Hawaii Shippers Council (HSC) for more details.

The Council sent us a copy of their proposal for Noncontiguous Trades Jones Act Reform (NTJAR) along with some further commentary:

The main program for the Hawaii Shippers’ Council (HSC) is advocating for its noncontiguous trades -- Alaska, Guam, Hawaii and Puerto Rico – Jones Act reform proposal.   In a nutshell, our proposed reform would exempt the noncontiguous domestic shipping trades from the U.S. build requirement of the Jones Act for deep draft self-propelled ships.  We are not proposing to change the other Jones Act requirements in respect of the noncontiguous trades, i.e.: U.S.-flag, U.S.-ownership and U.S.-crew.

Our goal is to have federal legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress to enact the exemption we are seeking.

The HSC has been active in stating its case to state and noncontiguous territory media outlets, and we welcome them and all interested parties to consider the OGSR as a platform in which to state their case.