Jones Act

America Suspended the Jones Act. Americans Were the Winners.

In under five months, waiving the protectionist law opened up whole trade routes and sent fuel to areas that needed it. Why go back?

Veronique de Rugy | 8.13.2026 9:45 AM

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(Illustration: Midjourney)

Since March, America has been running an accidental experiment and glimpsing what the country might look like without one of its dumbest statutes. The results are in, and they embarrass a century's worth of U.S. lawmakers and defenders.

The statute is the Jones Act, passed in 1920 to rebuild and protect the U.S. merchant marine fleet after World War I disrupted American shipping capabilities. It requires that any vessel moving cargo between two American ports must be built in an American shipyard, be American-owned, and be at least three-quarters American-crewed. Miss any one of these marks and the shipper is barred from carrying a single barrel of fuel from Houston to Honolulu.

The stated justification for the act is national security. We need American ships and American sailors to fight wars. But 100 years in, it's hard to repeat this justification with a straight face.

An American-built cargo ship costs $190 million to $250 million to build; the same vessel costs about $30 million from a foreign shipyard. U.S. shipyards now build less than 1 percent of what China and South Korea do, and roughly 300 U.S. shipyards........

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