Want Americans to buy US products? Dump the Jones Act

© Hafakot

It’s an old argument: does the Jones Act put ‘America First, or is it economically harmful to US states and companies? The Cato Institute believes the latter. It has published a blog post arguing that the Jones Act (which mandates the use of US-flagged, US-built vessels that are at least 75% US-owned and crewed for purposes of domestic transport) is damaging to US states.

For one thing, there are no Jones Act-compliant liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers. Hawaii, New Hampshire and ...