U.S. expert "U.S. should revise Jones law to invest in South Korea's shipbuilding industry"

While U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has expressed the need for cooperation in the shipbuilding industry with South Korea, a U.S. expert has suggested institutional improvement measures to promote investment in the Korean shipbuilding industry in the U.S.

Former U.S. Embassy political affairs official Henry Haggard cited shipbuilding as an industry that the U.S. can revive by strengthening relations with South Korea in a post on the website of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Haggard argued that the Jones Act should be amended to allow ships to be built outside the United States if the next U.S. president is to save the U.S. shipbuilding industry and preserve the capacity to supply ships needed for military and cargo.

The Jones Act allows all cargoes to and from ports in the United States to be built in the United States and only U.S. ships with American sailors on board, preventing ships made in other countries from exporting to the United States.

Haggard cited liquefied natural gas carriers as an example of ships that must be built outside the United States and pointed out that they have not been built in the United States since 1970.

Haggard explained that the revision of the Jones Act could attract innovative Korean companies to invest in the U.S., preserving the U.S. shipbuilding capabilities and creating new jobs.