Business

McCain’s Campaign Against Protectionism Draws Ire Of Industry

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Peter Fricke Contributor
Font Size:

The shipbuilding industry is launching a counteroffensive against Republican Sen. John McCain’s effort to repeal a protectionist law that artificially raises domestic shipping costs.

McCain filed an amendment to the Keystone XL bill last week that would repeal the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act, which “requires that all goods shipped between waterborne ports of the United States be carried by vessels built in the United States and owned and operated by Americans.”

In a press release, McCain called the Jones Act “an antiquated law that has for too long hindered free trade, made U.S. industry less competitive, and raised prices for American consumers.” (RELATED: McCain Wants to End Protectionism for Shipping Industry)

The Congressional Research Service, he noted, has determined that “it costs $6 per barrel to move crude from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast United States on a Jones Act tanker, while a foreign-flag tanker can take that same crude to a refinery in Canada for $2 per barrel.”

In response, Politico reports that “shipbuilding advocates are launching an assault [on McCain’s effort],” lobbying elected officials and warning that repeal of the Jones Act would put thousands of U.S. jobs at risk as well as threaten national security.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers issued a letter saying that, “McCain’s amendment would result in the outsourcing of U.S. shipbuilding to foreign nations,” which Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft told Politico would “put our entire U.S. fleet in jeopardy.”

McCain, who has long been one of the Senate’s leading national security advocates, disagrees with that assessment, arguing that the Jones Act has no value for national defense, and merely forces consumers to subsidize inefficient companies. (RELATED: The Freer the Trade, the Better Things Get)

The Maritime Executive, a trade publication, ran an op-ed on Sunday by Editor-in-chief Tony Munoz claiming that McCain’s “attack” on the Jones Act “would put hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work in more than half the states” if it succeeds.

Munoz admits that, “Lifting the Jones Act would open U.S. markets to foreign competition and might decrease prices for consumers,” but counters that, “McCain’s laissez-faire sentiments would actually destroy U.S. jobs, lower personal income, devastate U.S. vessel-operating companies, and obliterate American shipbuilders.”

Bryan Riley and Brian Slattery, however, contend in an op-ed for The Daily Signal that, “protecting U.S. industries from competition may actually have the opposite effect.” (RELATED: Protectionism is the Solution to America’s Job Shortage)

U.S. exports of commercial ships were virtually negligible in 2013 ($0.1 billion), they say, whereas exports of trucks and trailers (which have no Jones Act-like protections) amounted to $4.1 billion.

Moreover, “commercial shipbuilding accounts for just 21.7 percent of total shipbuilding,” and the vast majority of the industry produces vessels for the military, so repealing the Jones Act would affect far fewer jobs than the industry predicts. (RELATED: How to End the Jones Act’s Protectionism)

Whatever limited economic damage might result would be more than offset by the gains to consumers, particularly those in Hawaii and Puerto Rico that depend on waterborne imports from the mainland.

On balance, they conclude, repealing the Jones Act “would promote competition, strengthen the economy, and benefit American consumers.”

Follow Peter Fricke on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel