US scrapping Jones Act extension
SWEEPING proposals to change the Jones Act are being withdrawn, US Customs & Border Protection confirmed today.
The proposal, made public in July, would have reversed more than three decades of rulings related to the Jones Act, pertaining to work boats serving the offshore oil and gas drilling industry.
The changes would have placed under the under Jones Act the transport of undersea infrastructure used in deepwater oil extraction, as applied to vessels built and registered in the US and owned 75% by US citizens.
However, based on “several substantive comments” out of 141 comments received, customs is scrapping the proposal. A new notice and proposal on the Jones Act, as it relates to offshore, will be published in the Customs Bulletin “in the near future,” it added.
The proposals had been hailed by the Offshore Marine Service Association as a means of gaining back US jobs lost to foreign competitors. OMSA president Ken Wells was not immediately available to comment.