Trump administration suspends Jones Act for 60 days amid Iran war in International Shipping News 20/03/2026 The US government has issued a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act, a White House official confirmed to Platts, as the Trump administration attempts to combat rising energy prices and trade disruptions in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran. “President Trump’s decision to issue a 60-day Jones Act waiver is just another step to mitigate the short-term disruptions to the oil market as the US military continues meeting the objectives of Operation Epic Fury,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “This action will allow vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and coal to flow freely to US ports for sixty days, and the Administration remains committed to continuing to strengthen our critical supply chains.” The Jones Act, formally Section 20 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, requires that any goods shipped by water between two US ports be carried on ships that are US-built, US-owned, US-flagged and US-crewed. Suspending the law will allow foreign-flagged ships to transport products between US ports. Jones Act waivers are rare and have typically drawn harsh political pushback from US maritime groups. The last waiver was issued in 2022, when the Biden administration suspended the law for a single BP tanker. The American Maritime Partnership responded that its members were “shocked and outraged.” A limited supply of Jones Act-compliant ships is available to transport crude oil from the US Gulf Coast to coastal refineries in other regions, which typically source imported barrels transported on cheaper, non-US tankers. The US Gulf Coast regularly exports crude and refined products to international markets. The move is “bearish for US West Coast and US Atlantic Coast refined product cracks, and effectively increases the available tanker fleet, reducing transportation bottlenecks,” S&P Global Energy CERA analysts James Bambino and Richard Joswick wrote March 12, after Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, first confirmed the Trump administration was deliberating Jones Act waivers. “This action will effectively cap USEC and USWC product prices at USGC levels plus freight on international-flagged vessels,” the analysts said on March 12. “It will not push prices below USGC parity, but will merely keep coastal prices from excessively surging if imports become tight.” Trade flows, surging prices The Jones Act, originally designed to promote US shipbuilding, has long made most refined product bookings to domestic ports from tankers originating on the USGC economically unviable. Most Jones Act-compliant flows of fuel products currently supply Florida, which has no refineries and does not connect to the large Colonial or Products pipelines that supply much of the East Coast, according to a March 16 CERA Crisis Market Impact report. “There is ample tanker capacity in the region that could rapidly be deployed to move refined products to the US East and West Coasts in the case of an imminent Jones Act waiver,” the analysts wrote. The benefits of the suspension could especially affect the US West Coast market, analysts found. Pipeline capacity to transport fuel from the USGC is limited, and the USWC’s imports are sourced nearly exclusively from Asia. The recent closures of two California refineries are projected to increase reliance on Asian imports. South Korea, which supplies 80%-90% of the USWC’s jet fuel imports, re