Maritime Cabotage Task Force now American Maritime Partnership

American Maritime Partnership (AMP) is the new name for the Maritime Cabotage Task Force. It says that the new name “better reflects the coalition’s focus on the domestic maritime industry’s role in promoting national, homeland, and economic security. “

The AMP is the largest coalition of maritime interests in the United States and has been in operation since 1995.  As well as renaming itself,  AMP has launched a new website: www.americanmaritimepartnership.com, and has new social media applications on Facebook and Twitter.

“A strong domestic maritime industry is critical to our national security, makes our homeland more secure, and fosters nearly 500,000 American jobs,” said James Henry, President of the Transportation Institute and Chairman of the Board of Directors of AMP.  “The American Maritime Partnership will continue to support policies that help ensure ample U.S. sealift capacity to defend our nation; keep America’s waterways secure with strong laws and oversight of the U.S. government; and work to sustain the nearly 500,000 jobs and $100-plus billion in annual economic output that follow in the industry’s wake.  For example, every job in a domestic shipyard results in four additional jobs elsewhere in the U.S. economy.”

Continued growth of the domestic maritime industry hinges on continued adherence to time-tested principles, namely that domestic waterborne commerce and related activities be conducted in vessels that are U.S.-owned, U.S.-built, and U.S.-crewed.  AMP will continue to champion these tenets as the only foundation for a strong domestic maritime industry.

“The average American is totally unaware that the U.S. maritime industry pioneered many of the advancements that transformed waterborne commerce worldwide.  The containership, the self-unloading vessel, and articulated tug-barge units are but a few examples,” said Henry.

AMP inherits from MCTF a membership of 450-plus organizations that represent vessel owners and operators, shipboard and shore-side labor groups, shipbuilders and repair yards, marine equipment manufacturers and vendors, trade associations, dredging and marine construction contractors, pro-defense groups and companies in other modes of domestic transportation. AMP says these diverse but allied interests share a common goal: to promote the long-standing U.S. maritime laws fundamental to national and economic security. Upon a foundation of U.S. ownership, construction and crews, the United States has built an unsubsidized domestic fleet that is the world leader in efficiency, innovation and safety.

Under U.S. domestic maritime laws, commonly known as the Jones Act, notes AMP, cargo shipped between two U.S. ports must move on American vessels.  These laws, it says,  are critical for American economic, national, and homeland security, which is why they have enjoyed the support of the U.S. Navy, Members of Congress of both parties, and every President in modern history.

February 22, 2011