Farmers want Jones Act waiver

Updated 9:37 a.m. ET, Wed Sep 21, 2005

A coalition of 21 agriculture groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation have sent a letter to President Bush requesting a temporary waiver of the Jones Act to help move grain to ports in the Southeastern United States (schedules).

The coalition in the letter sent Tuesday notes that a temporary waiver for agricultural products and related dry bulk commodities through the end of this year would assist in the post-

Katrina recovery effort of ports and waterways by easing the burden on the U.S. transportation system.
A limited number of Jones Act vessels are available for use by the agriculture industry, which makes their cost far higher than using foreign flag vessels, the coalition said.

The White House granted a waiver of the act to help move oil after petroleum infrastructure in the Gulf region was damaged by Katrina last month. That waiver expired earlier this week.

The letter notes that without a waiver, buyers would likely look to other countries to fill demand.
The timing of the request is critical, as the Agriculture Department recently pegged the current corn crop at 10.6 billion bushels and the soybean crop at 2.86 billion bushels, the second-largest on record.