Homework Question on Cabotage by merchant ships
- Cabotage by merchant ships is prohibited in most countries that have a coastline.
- Explain what such policies are intended to do?
- Regarding Cabotage, which laws has been implemented for the shipping industry in the United States?
Hint: Search for the “Passenger Services Act of 1886” and the “Merchant Marine (Jones) Act of 1920”.
Homework Answer on Cabotage by merchant ships
Countries that have coastlines such as Nigeria, the United States and Portugal among others enacted the cabotage act that primarily objectifies to reserve the commercial transportation of goods and services within the coastal and inland waterways of an individual nation. Nicky E. Hesse in the McGill law journal defines the right to cabotage as involving the state reserving its national instrumentalities of commerce between two points of its territory (Hesse 129).
The policy extends to protection or reduction of competition from foreign shipping companies, national security reasons and the preservation of local shipping infrastructure. The law, therefore, prohibits or limits the commercial transportation of goods and services to vessels that fly, for example, the United States flag and owned by American citizens or companies.
The United states implemented the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886; the Dredging Act of 1906; the Jones Act or Merchant Marine Act of 1920; and the Towing Statute of 1940 and altogether makes up the maritime cabotage rules and regulations of the United States. However, the Jones act can be termed to constitute the fundamental cabotage law in the United States, in which, the United States courts have continued to interpret other cabotage statutes. The Jones Act connotes that for participation in the coastwise trade in the U.S, the maritime vessel has to be constructed or rebuilt in the country, owned by an American citizen and having U.S citizens as its crewmembers.