Derecho marítimo Shipwreck and Showdown: The MSC Elsa-3 Case and the Test of India’s Maritime Law and Coastal Protection
The operation has sparked concerns that China is practicing to enforce a quarantine-style blockade around Taiwan
Temporary waivers are creating tax distortions, disadvantaging American operators, and undermining confidence in the merchant marine
Published May 31, 2026 1:47 PM by William P. Doyle
The recent Jones Act waiver debate has largely focused on vessel availability, fuel prices, and emergency logistics. Far less attention has been paid to a more consequential issue: the tax and regulatory distortions that arise when foreign-flag carriers enter domestic U.S. coastwise commerce, displacing American shipping companies and American merchant mariners.
The effects are no longer theoretical. They are unfolding in real time.
Consider two foreign-flag vessels currently operating under the Jones Act waiver environment.
The first is the Chinese-flagged Jin Zhou Wan, operated by COSCO Shipping, a company wholly owned and controlled by the government of
More than 200 activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) lost all contact with the outside world on Wednesday night, when they were attacked by warships, jet skis and speedboats full of heavily-armed Israeli commandos. The flotilla participants were sailing just off the coast of Greece at the time – more than 500 nautical miles from Gaza.
Here is what you can do
At this moment Israeli military forces are illegally attacking and boarding the sailboats of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) in international waters east of Cyprus. As this article is being written, the heavily armed Israeli commandos are seizing control of one boat after another and detaining its participants in a large prison ship.
25 U.S. citizens are among the over 500 participants from 45 countries on the nearly 60 boats of the 2026 flotilla to Gaza.
Flotilla organizers are reaching out with an URGENT REQUEST for solidarity and action.
YONHAP
The Korea Coast Guard conducts a joint training exercise in the Yellow Sea near Socheongdo, an island off the coast of Incheon, to crack down on illegal Chinese fishing vessels on April 9. [YONHAP]