Tag Archives: cabotage

Cabotage laws cover 85% of world’s coastlines

Posted on October 1, 2025 by | Leave a comment

Cabotage refers to laws or regulations that insist that national carriers transport freight or passengers within a country. A new publication indicates it is becoming more prevalent.

Cabotage in the US has been a feature of air travel for many years; it’s why we don’t see foreign airlines flying US domestic routes. But it’s perhaps more important in the case of ocean freight. For instance, Hawaii needs to have US ships transport goods. Same with Puerto Rico.

The principal argument for cabotage is to protect a nation’s logistics capacity when there’s an outside threat. That includes having trained seafarers, and a supply of vehicles or ships under control of a nation’s firms.

Cabotage has been around for centuries. Great Britain in the 1700s and 1800s had strict cabotage laws as did most other European powers of the day; France, Spain, Portugal. The laws varied, but violations of them were considered piracy. It’s hard to enforce such laws everywhere on a coastline. During the 1700s and 1800s Ireland and France did a brisk trade under the radar; recall that the Irish were not happy about British supremacy there.

In the US cabotage requires building of ships in the US, so it supports the US shipbuilding industry. It also ensures that military cargoes have US ships to carry them in case of war, as well as some trained hands for the ships.

How effective it is for these purposes is not clear, as the number of US citizen mariners has been declining for years now. It’s not that attractive a profession for many; a hard life, and constantly traveling. As a veteran of a maritime academy faculty, I am well aware of the difficulty of getting students to choose this kind of education.

It seems that most nations have cabotage laws now. The report mentioned in the story indicates a large percentage of coastlines are affected by cabotage restrictions of various kinds, with over 105 nations reporting cabotage restrictions.

The new publication is the second edition of Cabotage Laws of the World, by Hilton Staniland and Deirdre Fitzpatrick. The latter is the CEO of Seafarers Rights International (SRI), an important organization in the maritime community.

Sam Chambers October 1, 2025

https://splash247.com/cabotage-laws-now-cover-85-of-worlds-coastlines/

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Feds dodging US-flag ship cargo rules, GAO reveals

Posted on September 13, 2022 by | 1 comment

The General Accounting Office (GAO), the branch of the US government that audits agencies, has found that the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) has not been following the Jones Act rules for cabotage.

Cabotage is a type of regulation that mandates that cargo to or from domestic destinations should be carried in the ships flagged in that nation.

There are lots of cabotage rules around the world. Air is one place we see them worldwide, where foreign airlines cannot fly do=mestic US routes, for instance. Most countries have cabotage rules for air traffic. Many nations also have maritime cabotage rules.

In the US the cabotage law is known as the Jones Act. Among other things, it says that cargo being carried for the US government, the army or navy for instance, or for NGOs and other organizations carrying US government-owned goods (like soybeans for hunger relief), must use a certain proportion of US-flagged and US-built ships.

Apparently MARAD has not been monitoring this kind of traffic, and abuses have followed. The article outlines the claims and MARAD’s response.

Cabotage also came up just a few weeks ago when gas and oil prices were rocketing skyward. Some, such as the Cato Institute, claimed that US cabotage which prohibited transport between domestic ports of oil and gas by foreign-flagged ships was responsible for a part of the price rise. The Cato Institute suggested doing away with cabotage for this trade. Puerto Rico was one of the main places the pain might be felt, since foreign ships could easily do the job there. There are students of the situation on the other side in this dispute with Cato, though.

The long-term justification for the Jones Act and cabotage, in general, is to preserve a nation’s capability in logistics, in terms of vessels, manpower, construction capability, and infrastructure, so as not to be dependent on foreign powers in case of disagreement or conflict. One could argue that we have already compromised the US ability to mount a strong seafaring merchant force in case of war, with shortages of captains and seafarers.

But it certainly would help if MARAD could enforce the existing law more closely. The Ukraine war has made us think about disruptions of military supply lines, and how we might respond to them.

John Gallagher Monday, September 12, 2022

Feds dodging US-flag ship cargo rules, GAO reveals – FreightWaves

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