Oct 8, 2021,09:55am EDT|1,007 views
Dwindling U.S. Merchant Fleet Is A Crisis Waiting To Happen
Loren Thompson
The global pandemic has alerted policymakers to the fragility of supply chains feeding the American economy.
Pictures of merchant vessels anchored off the U.S. coast as they await access to ports are a reminder of just how dependent the nation has become on foreign goods.
However, a key measure of that dependence has gone largely unremarked in national media—the extent to which the ships themselves are owned and operated by foreign interests.
The U.S. merchant fleet of oceangoing commercial vessels has steadily declined for decades, to a point where today the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration figures only 1.5% of U.S. waterborne imports and exports are carried on vessels of domestic registry.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2021/10/08/dwindling-us-merchant-fleet-is-a-crisis-waiting-to-happen/?sh=6a68f9af2a8d
