Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., intends to introduce a bill to improve Coast Guard enforcement of the vessel construction requirements of the Jones Act. … The U.S. Trade Representative worried that the changes in the Jones Act would trigger a review of the law by the World Trade Organization. The Jones Act … requires ships operating between U.S. ports to be owned and manned by U.S. citizens, and built in the United States. In June 2008, Taylor held hearings about the Coast Guard’s regulatory practice after the agency gave the go-ahead to Matson Navigation and Seabulk to have substantial construction on their ships done at shipyards in China. He called the Coast Guard’s approval of the projects “a screw-up.”
