Politics
08:59, 27-Sep-2017
US rejects Puerto Rico's shipping waiver request
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The Trump administration on Tuesday denied a request to waive shipping restrictions to help get fuel and supplies to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico, saying it would do nothing to address the island's main impediment to shipping, damaged ports.
The Jones Act limits shipping between coasts to US flagged vessels. However, in the wake of brutal storms, the government has occasionally issued temporary waivers to allow the use of cheaper, tax-free or more readily available foreign-flagged ships.
The Department of Homeland Security, which waived the act after hurricanes Harvey and Irma, did not agree an exemption would help this time.
People walk on the street next to debris after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria in Guayama, Puerto Rico September 20, 2017. /Reuters Photo
People walk on the street next to debris after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria in Guayama, Puerto Rico September 20, 2017. /Reuters Photo
On Monday, US Representative Nydia Velázquez and seven other representatives asked Elaine Duke, acting head of Homeland Security, to waive the nearly 100-year-old shipping law for a year to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria.
Gregory Moore, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, an office of Homeland Security, said in a statement that an assessment by the agency showed there was "sufficient capacity" of US-flagged vessels to move commodities to Puerto Rico.
"The limitation is going to be port capacity to offload and transit, not vessel availability," Moore said.
Puerto Rico has long railed against the Jones Act, saying it makes the cost of imported basic commodities, such as food, clothing and fuel, more expensive.
After Homeland's denial, Senator John McCain, a Republican and a long-time opponent of the Jones Act, sent a letter to Duke asking why the department decided against the waiver.
He asked the department to detail the costs of shipping goods from Florida to Puerto Rico versus the costs of shipping from Florida to the Virgin Islands, which has a permanent Jones Act exemption.
Damaged electrical installations are seen after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria en Guayama, Puerto Rico September 20, 2017. /Reuters Photo
Damaged electrical installations are seen after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria en Guayama, Puerto Rico September 20, 2017. /Reuters Photo
"It is unacceptable to force the people of Puerto Rico to pay at least twice as much for food, clean drinking water, supplies and infrastructure due to Jones Act requirements as they work to recover from this disaster," McCain said in the letter.
The United States shipped an average of nearly 770,000 barrels of crude oil and oil products like gasoline and diesel annually to Puerto Rico from 2012 to 2016.
Source(s): Reuters