WHAT, nATIONALISM DOESN'T WORK?:

Once again, Puerto Ricans are paying the price for an antiquated shipping law that makes food and other goods more expensive on the island. The law is inexcusable in ordinary times -- and downright scandalous now, when the island is reeling from yet another natural disaster. [...]

Under a 100-year-old law known as the Jones Act, vessels transporting products between domestic ports -- which includes Puerto Rico -- must be built, owned, and crewed by Americans. As a result of operating in such a protected market, ship builders and shipping companies are able to inflate prices and make outsized profits. US-built ships are two to five times more expensive than foreign-built ships, according to a 2019 estimate.

The law rarely has a discernible impact on most Americans, but it's a permanent economic burden on our fellow citizens in places like Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Guam. People there can either pay to import foreign cargoes or pay the premium for American-flagged shipping of domestic goods. Either way, the result is higher prices. In Hawaii, the law adds an estimated $248 to annual food costs for its residents. Cars cost about 40 percent more in Puerto Rico than on the mainland. Debate emerges around the value of the law, or lack thereof, every few years when natural disasters strike or conflicts like the war in Ukraine arise. (Hawaii imports a large chunk of crude oil from Russia because the Jones Act makes buying US oil too expensive and had to suspend those imports after the Ukraine invasion.)

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