IADC, along with other offshore trade organizations, recently provided recommendations to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in response to the agency’s latest Request for Comments addressing the applicability of the Jones Act to oil and gas activities on the U.S. OCS. The opportunity to provide IADC’s insights to the CBP on the issue come after a year-long series of meetings with CBP officials where IADC and other trade groups were able to clearly articulate the variety of offshore activities that are not captured within the statutory authorities of the Jones Act. These meetings led to the latest CBP consultation which has resulted in substantial progress toward resolving longstanding questions about applying the Jones Act cabotage laws to offshore construction work and vessel equipment. IADC looks forward to the CBP’s favorable consideration of recommendations submitted in the effort to alleviate confusion and instill pragmatic and reasonable practices for applying Jones Act cabotage laws to the U.S. OCS.
For more information on the issue, including access to the Final Joint Trade Letter submitted to the CBP, please contact Jim Rocco at Jim.Rocco@iadc.org.
