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U.S. Customs & Border Patrol Renigs?

Latest News - Stop Foreign Vessels

Friday, 18 September 2009 14:55

CBP could scrap Jones Act revision

CUSTOMS & Border Protection will soon withdraw a proposal to bring US
offshore workboats under the Jones Act, an attorney working closely on
the issue told Fairplay today.

CBP officials were not immediately available for comment, but the
attorney said the agency will be "withdrawing what they did and starting
over", possibly with a revamped proposal.

The customs proposal would have reversed more than three decades of
precedents on foreign-flag workboats serving the US offshore oil and gas
drilling industry.

The changes would have meant that transport of undersea infrastructure
used in deepwater oil extraction would be subject to Jones Act
restrictions - requiring use of vessels built and flagged in the US.

That plan was hailed by the Offshore Marine Service Association as a
means of gaining back US jobs lost to foreign competitors. OMSA
president Ken Wells declined comment to Fairplay on reports that the
initial CBP plan would be scuttled until he "saw any new proposal in
writing".

An official withdrawal notice is expected 1 October, with public
confirmation of the reversal by CBP foreseen "in the near future", the
attorney source told Fairplay.

Steve Gordon Comment: This is incredible! If this is true, then it looked like the Jones Act was going to be saved but now it is subject to the same problems. But I have one question: If the U.S. companies were filling the spots like they were how were they doing it? That is, they had to attest to the U.S. Coast Guard and INS that they could not fill the spots to get a waiver. When the Customs and Border Patriol indicated they were going to enforce the Jones Act, the companies started scraping the foreign vessels at a fast pace. Now what are they going to do???
http://www.OffshoreInjuries.com

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Last Updated on Friday, 18 September 2009 15:09

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