WASHINGTON – The American Maritime Partnership (AMP), the voice of the domestic maritime industry, today announced a new national campaign calling on President Donald J. Trump to end the ongoing 150-day unprecedented Jones Act waiver and put American workers, American businesses and American maritime strength – first.
The Jones Act is a fundamental national security law that requires vessels moving cargo from point to point in the United States to be built, owned, and crewed by Americans. The current waiver by the Trump Administration is already creating extensive harm to American workers and American investment while foreign countries and workers profit.
The U.S. has been a maritime nation since its founding, and in the months leading up to – and following – America’s 250th birthday, the campaign will air in the nation’s most prominent maritime states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, among others. The campaign will feature television, connected TV, radio, digital advertising, and voices from the 650,000 men and women of American maritime.
“Clearly, President Trump has been led to believe that waiving the Jones Act is an effective way to lower gas prices, when we all see that prices have not gone down with the waiver. What the waiver does is put America last by allowing foreign operators and mariners to take American business and jobs,” said Jennifer Carpenter, President of the American Maritime Partnership. “While it may be a convenient talking point for Kevin Hassett and others pushing this failed attempt to lower prices, it directly undermines the very policies that President Trump campaigned on and has championed – buy American, hire American, and strengthen our national might. The President should trust his instincts, follow his outlined policies and put America and our national security first.”
The campaign’s first ad, ‘End the Waiver,’ features a captain of a Jones Act vessel reminding the audience that American maritime is the quintessential ‘America First’ industry. The ad ends with a call to President Trump to end the waiver and ‘Put Americans back to work.’
Recent independent analysis puts the waiver’s price impact at just $0.000157 per gallon, while total fuel moved under the waiver over the first 60 days amounts to roughly 11 hours of national consumption. And those immaterial benefits are a result of foreign carriers being able to operate free from compliance with U.S. immigration, minimum wage and taxation laws, among other regulations.
Meanwhile, completed waiver voyages have benefited foreign operators, many with ties to China. Broker data show that American vessels were available for about 90% of those routes. The uncertainty of the waiver’s potential extension has already caused at least one investment platform to halt a planned $1 billion capital raise for the maritime industry, putting at risk over $2.6 billion in active U.S. shipyard contracts and billions more in planned expansion.
In addition to television, CTV and digital advertising, the campaign will give voice to local mariners and operators by connecting them to media to discuss the impact of the waiver on jobs, investment and national security.
The campaign will run until the waiver ends.
To speak out against the ongoing waiver of the Jones Act, please click here.
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The American Maritime Partnership (AMP) is the voice of the U.S. domestic maritime industry. More than 45,000 American vessels built in American shipyards, crewed by American mariners, and owned by American companies, operate in our waters 24-hours a day, seven days a week. This commerce sustains nearly 650,000 American jobs, $41.6 billion in labor compensation, and more than $154.8 billion in annual economic output. Learn more by visiting www.americanmaritimepartnership.com.
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