Trump extends Jones Act waiver for 90 days, narrows scope

US President Donald Trump has extended for 90 days a waiver allowing foreign-flagged ships to transport oil and other commodities between US ports but imposed new limits after shipbuilders and their allies in ‌Congress argued the policy was undermining the domestic maritime industry, the White House said.

The extension, finalised on Monday, comes as the war with Iran disrupts global crude flows and pushes up fuel costs, increasing pressure on the administration to find ways to ease transport bottlenecks and keep petrol and other energy prices from rising further.

The 90-day extension ensures the US military and key industries maintain uninterrupted access to critical resources, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said on Monday.

“Data shows the waiver has driven ⁠a significant increase in domestic deliveries of essential products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel,” Rogers said in a post on social media.

Under the new terms, the administration has narrowed the scope of the relief, requiring individual voyages to undergo case-by-case review rather than allowing foreign ships to receive blanket exemptions from the Jones ‌Act, a White House official confirmed.

The Jones Act requires cargo moving between US ports to be carried on ships ⁠built in the US, owned ⁠by US companies and crewed by American workers, and the waiver aims to lower gas prices by increasing shipping flexibility and reducing transport bottlenecks.

The waiver was set to ‌expire on August 16 without the extension. It is the longest suspension of the more than a century-old law in its history.