The Trump administration is reportedly planning to issue temporary 30-day waivers for the Jones Act amid soaring oil prices due to the Iran war.

Colin Grabow is associate director at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies and a leading expert on the Jones Act. His research focuses on maritime policy, U.S. shipbuilding, and the economic impact of shipping restrictions.

In a new statement, Grabow says “War and economic turmoil have a way of focusing policymakers’ attention. Amid rising energy and fertilizer costs in the fallout from escalating conflict in the Middle East, the Trump administration is reportedly set to waive the Jones Act, the 1920 law requiring that domestic waterborne transportation be conducted on US-flagged vessels built in American shipyards.

It’s instructive. Although routinely defended as essential to national security, Jones Act waivers are often floated precisely when a genuine national security crisis or economic emergency arises. It’s an implicit acknowledgement by policymakers of what the law’s defenders rarely admit: that it constrains transportation options and raises costs. A law portrayed as indispensable to national security suddenly becomes optional when pressures mount.

There’s also a larger point to consider. If the Jones Act must be suspended to address national security emergencies, why do we keep it in place during times of peace? Why keep it around at all?”

To speak with Grabow, please reach out to Cato PR at pr@​cato.​org