Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has introduced legislation to repeal
the Jones Act, a 1920 law requiring that all goods shipped between
U.S. ports be carried by U.S.-built ships and that the vessels be
owned and operated by Americans.
In a bill introduced in late June, McCain called the Jones Act “
antiquated and protectionist” and said it favors labor unions over U.S.
consumers. He cited several studies that showed that a repeal of the
Jones Act could provide a boost to the U.S. economy of between
$650 million and $1 billion by introducing lower-cost foreign competition and labor into what are now U.S. monopoly trades.
McCain said the burden of the Jones Act falls most heavily on
residents of Alaska and Hawaii, states that rely heavily on goods
shipped via Jones Act vessels from the mainland. The senator cited
a comment made in 1997 by a Hawaiian government official that
Hawaiian residents at the time paid $1 billion more a year in higher prices because of the cost of complying with the Jones Act.
The Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO
criticized the bill, saying in a statement that it would lead to the
elimination of as many as half a million American jobs and
threaten national security by depleting the pool of U.S. ships and
skilled crews who could be deployed during wartime.
The TTD said “only U.S.-flag vessels crewed by U.S. citizen
mariners comply with the U.S. government-imposed homeland
security rules designed to protect the nation from maritime-relat-ed terrorist threats.”
McCain introduces bill to repeal
Jones Act
Postal Service, Commerce
launch joint exporting program
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and the U.S.
Commerce Department have launched a program
designed to increase market and shipping access
for small to mid-sized U.S. businesses looking to
begin exporting or expand their export activity.
The initiative, which was announced in February
but not implemented until mid-July, calls for USPS
and Commerce’s International Trade Administration
to support U.S. businesses that either do not export
or that export to only one country.
The post office will manage the joint effort
through its Global Business unit, which generated
$2.3 billion in revenue in 2009, a small but growing
component of USPS’s total annual revenue of more
than $68 billion.
The program will initially focus on businesses
that currently ship internationally with USPS, but
will eventually expand to companies that may use
other carriers for international shipping.
The joint effort is part of a comprehensive multi-agency effort to meet President Obama’s goal of
doubling the nation’s exports over the next five
years. Less than 1 percent of the nation’s 30 million
businesses are engaged in exporting, and of those,
58 percent export to just one market, according to
Commerce data.
newsmakers
; Toyota Material Handling
U.S.A. Inc. (TMHU) and its
manufacturing arm, Toyota
Industrial Equipment Mfg.
Inc. (TIEM), have announced
two management appointments. Martin Boyd has
been named vice president of product planning and marketing for TMHU. He has been with Toyota for 11 years and was
most recently the national product planning and marketing
manager. Also promoted was Tony Miller, who has been
appointed vice president of production engineering, design
engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance for TIEM.
Miller, who has been with the company since 1996, was previously the senior manager of production engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance at the TIEM manufacturing facility in Columbus, Ind.
BOYD
MILLER
; Bill Brown has been named service manager at Westfalia
Technologies. He will be responsible for supporting cus-
tomer service needs, including installations, upgrades, pre-
ventative maintenance, and repairs to Westfalia systems.
Brown, who previously worked at Graham Engineering and
Engel Machinery, brings more than 20 years of experience in
manufacturing to his new position.
; Ingram Micro, the world’s largest technology distributor,
has appointed Robert Gifford executive vice president, global logistics. In this newly created role, Gifford will be responsible for all of Ingram Micro’s distribution centers and supply
chain operations worldwide. He comes to Ingram Micro after
six years at Ecolab, where he was senior vice president, global supply chain.
; Susan Plonkey has been appointed acting president, mailing and shipping services, at the U.S. Postal Service. The
division generates $65 billion in annual revenue. Plonkey,
who had been vice president of sales, will be responsible for
product management, product development, retail and commercial products and services, and commercial sales.
