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Hawaii's near-total dependence on ocean shipping puts the 1920 Jones Act — which limits domestic cargo to US-built, US-owned, US-crewed vessels — at the center of a sharp dispute. Rob Quartel, president of the Jones Act Reform Coalition, argues the law imposes a direct "ocean freight penalty" of $200 million a year on Hawaii's liner shipping, rising to roughly $1 billion when indirect costs are counted — about $1,000 per resident. Philip Grill, Matson vice president and chair of the Maritime Cabotage Task Force, counters that West Coast-Hawaii container rates have declined alongside truck and rail rates and that ocean shipping accounts for just 79 cents of a $4.33 Honolulu price premium on a box of detergent. Mike Hansen of the Hawaii Shippers' Council notes that a comparable vessel could be built abroad for $65 million versus the $165 million Matson paid domestically. Robert J. Murray disputes the penalty figures and defends Matson-Sea-Land competition, arguing rates must rise with costs. Sumner Erdman argues that without competition prices simply never fall. Consumer Advocate Charles Totto, unable to attend, argued in a companion newspaper piece that repeal alone would not reduce prices without stronger shipping regulation.
Transcript
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
