As Puerto Rico enters what will likely be a long period of recovery after Hurricane Maria, the debate surrounding the Jones Act rages on.
Opponents say the law makes it harder for Puerto Rico to recover as it makes goods more expensive, but supporters say repealing it would cost Florida thousands of jobs.
Action News Jax’s Lorena Inclan spoke to a maritime law expert about why Jacksonville is the focal point of the debate.
JAXPORT is the main port in the country for Jones Act shipping to the island of Puerto Rico. One expert said that shipping route alone accounts for thousands of local jobs, putting lawmakers in a very tough spot.
The Jones Act requires that all cargo ships going from the U.S. to Puerto Rico be U.S.-flagged vessels that were built in the U.S. and manned with a U.S. crew.
It was temporarily waived when Hurricane Maria hit but some say Puerto Rico should be permanently exempt.
“The Puerto Rican traffic is literally the most important traffic between Jacksonville and anyplace else in the world,” maritime attorney Rod Sullivan said.
Sullivan said Florida would be on the losing end if the law were repealed and Jacksonville would see the most damage.
“If the Jones Act wasn't there, a Panamanian or Liberian-flagged shipped built in Korea or China could be used to transport cargo from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico using crews from India and Malaysia,” Sullivan said.
That means thousands of jobs could potentially be lost.
But opponents argue that the law makes goods on the island too expensive, hurting its recovery
“It will increase the cost of getting building materials and other supplies to interior portions of Puerto Rico,” Sullivan said.
Florida has a sizeable Puerto Rican population, a group that’s also a significant voting bloc.
“If you're in Florida and you're an elected official, you need to balance the fact that it produces jobs against the fact that it loses votes from Puerto Rican voters,” Sullivan said.
As the debate rages on, it seems compromise will be tough to achieve.
Sullivan said cargo-sharing may be a middle ground; 40 percent of cargo could go on U.S.-flagged ships, another 40 percent on Puerto Rican ships and 20 percent would be open to the world trade. But when that was offered up a few years ago, Sullivan said it never gained any traction.