The Maritime Cabotage Task Force Dec. 13 raised new objections to a controversial agreement allowing three foreign-flagged cruise ships to provide temporary housing for Gulf Coast families displaced by Hurricane Katrina last September.
The House of Representatives and the Senate in December approved legislation to extend temporarily U.S. merchant mariner documents and licenses for U.S. merchant marine officers and crews in storm-stricken Gulf Coast states.
The United States will not abandon its food aid export programs at the multilateral trade table, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said in December.
A single foreign-flagged tanker will be permitted to continue operating in domestic markets until Jan. 31.
A declining U.S.-flagged commercial merchant fleet and its attendant decline in the civilian American seagoing labor base pose persistent threats to U.S. national security, the Navy League of the United States has warned.
