TheOP was about Jones Act concerns. You should hear the Philippines bitching about the Indians undercutting their jobs. It’s nothing new anywhere. It’s about protecting the US mariners way of life , so in time of war (or other pressing need) the US will have a viable Merchant Marine. Of course there will always be the ‘Boatruc’ outfits here. But we also have some top notch companies to work for. The same cannot be said for most of the flag of convenience fleets. (Sure, for an Indian or Bangladeshie…)
The correct response to that would have been, without the Jones Act Filipinos would be working for Tenner on a 10 and 2 schedule. All for pennies a day. If one of these ‘second flag’ concepts creeps in were all screwed. Well, almost all. The offices would be sitting pretty.
Sounds kind of like the yachting industry, such as it is. A USA passport is a real liability working on the yachts big enough to need hired crew. Apparently between suing people for anything and requiring expensive health insurance we cost too much. I only ever dealt with USA flag deliveries between USA ports, so I was not on the receiving end of this back in the day. Didn’t realize it extended to the big ships as well.
Speaking of the Jones Act, my own boat has a note on the documentation for “pleasure only” or some such thanks to being built in Canada. Did NAFTA get rid of that or is it still in force?
Oh its defiantly still in effect. My pleasure boat says the same thing. I checked up on it a few years back and was told that Jones Act takes precedence over NAFTA.