President Donald Trump's administration is set to extend its waiver of the Jones Act in the coming days, allowing some foreign-flagged ships to keep carrying oil and other commodities between United States ports, four industry sources told Reuters on Thursday, November 12.

Source: Reuters

The extension would come with a tighter rule attached: instead of the blanket exemptions foreign ships have received under the current waiver, each individual voyage would need case-by-case review, two of the sources said. One source said the extension could come as early as Thursday. A White House official told Reuters that no decision has yet been made on extending the waiver, and that any announcement will be made directly by Trump or his administration. As of Thursday evening, no formal announcement had been published.

Source: Reuters

What the Jones Act is

The Jones Act is the shipping part of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. In plain terms, goods moved by water between US ports must travel on ships built in the United States, owned by American companies, flagged in the United States and crewed mostly by Americans. Supporters say the law keeps an American fleet and American shipyards ready for an emergency. Critics say it raises the cost of shipping inside the country. The Department of Homeland Security can set the law aside in the interest of national defence — the power the administration used in March.

Eight months of waivers

Homeland Security first issued the waiver on March 17, 2026, at the request of the Department of War, after the war with Iran scrambled energy markets and the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed. With fuel prices jumping, the administration said letting foreign tankers move Gulf Coast fuel to both coasts would ease shortages. The first waiver ran 60 days and covered more than 600 product categories. It was extended for 90 days in May and again in August, taking its total run to about 250 days — already the longest Jones Act waiver in history. The August round narrowed the waiver to about 228 categories and required shippers to ask first whether an American ship could do the job. Administration data cited by Reuters show about 300 waivers were granted under the broad March and May versions, and about 48 under the narrower August rules.

Source: Reuters / CBP guidance

The measured effect on prices has been modest. The American Action Forum put the freight savings from the waiver at about $100 million across its run — roughly 6.6 cents a gallon on Gulf Coast to West Coast shipments and 1.5 to 2 cents a gallon to the East Coast. Analysts told Reuters the extra tankers would likely trim pump prices by only pennies a gallon. Prices remain far above pre-war levels: AAA put gasoline at about $3.91 a gallon on Thursday, against $2.98 before the war, and diesel at about $6.10, against $3.76.

Refiners want it kept. Shipbuilders want it gone

The waiver's biggest users have been refiners. A Bloomberg Government review found that major refiners, led by Valero Energy with 29 filings, submitted most of the waiver applications. Energy and free-market groups — including the National Taxpayers Union and Americans for Prosperity, which wrote to the president with 18 other groups on October 22 — have urged the White House to extend and loosen the waiver before winter, arguing that the stricter August process cut fuel shipments sharply.

American shipowners, shipbuilders and maritime unions want the opposite. In a November 3 letter to the White House, Jennifer Carpenter, president of the American Maritime Partnership, urged Trump to let the waiver expire, saying her members report more than $2.6 billion in delayed shipbuilding investment. She also said more than 28 percent of reported waiver voyages involved ships or companies tied to China, including the state-owned shipping giant COSCO, which she called a national security risk. “Allowing the Jones Act waiver to expire as scheduled will restore certainty, protect American jobs and ensure our domestic maritime industry remains strong,” she wrote. Nine maritime unions have separately questioned whether foreign crews follow US tax, immigration and safety rules, and Representative Salud Carbajal of California has demanded answers from Homeland Security about voyages missing from public records.

Why it matters for truckers and Punjabi families

Diesel is the trucking industry's lifeblood, and most Punjabi-American truckers run the same corridors this waiver touches — Gulf Coast fuel moving to the East and West coasts. The US Energy Information Administration put the national average on-highway diesel price at $6.127 a gallon for the week of November 9, with California — home to the largest Punjabi trucking community in the country — at about $7.90 a gallon, the highest in the nation. Every cent on diesel moves freight rates, and freight rates move the price of everything on store shelves, from groceries in Fresno and Sacramento to building material in New Jersey and Texas. A decision that keeps more tankers moving between US ports will not by itself bring diesel back under $4, but shipping groups on both sides agree the Sunday deadline is the biggest single lever the White House holds over fuel logistics this month.