Should the federal government prop up the ailing U.S. commercial shipbuilding sector with subsidies?

Included in the Trump Administration’s recently released “Maritime Action Plan,” promoted as seeking “the restoration of America’s maritime dominance,” is a new round of proposed construction subsidies for U.S. commercial shipbuilding. No one disagrees that the sector can’t compete with many other countries on cost, infrastructure, innovation and turnaround time on orders. But does it make sense to attempt to level the playing field with expensive subsidies? Colin Grabow, a scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, says the answer is no. He argues that the U.S. domestic shipbuilding sector isn’t even close to competing with other nations, “under current conditions or under any plausible combination of subsidies or mandates.” Grabow also explains his opposition to the Jones Act, which mandates that ships serving the U.S. domestic trades be U.S.-built, owned and crewed. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.

Show notes:

Grabow’s op-ed, “Maritime Action Plan Highlights Washington’s Misplaced Shipbuilding Obsession.”