Help Puerto Rico recover from devastating hurricane damage

Cyia said:

The irony of this is that with the number of people trying to get to relatives on the main land, I'd think clogging chimerical flights with people who should have access to other means of air travel (like hitching a ride on a cargo plane) would be the greater injustice. Those few successful commercial flights are needed as much as incoming assistance for PR's citizens.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/delta-ceo-on-free-in-flight-messaging-puerto-rico-relief-challenges/

The short version: humanitarian aids (and cargo, I would guess) going in, no infrastructure to get people back. On another interview, FEMA AsstDir on CNN this morning said (sry, no link) is looking to bring back people with military cargo planes. Problem is configuration changes (aka where do you store the seats for the trip back in if you are bringing in cargo).

-cb

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[h=1]The Jones Act Waiver For Puerto Rico Just Expired And Won't Be Renewed[/h]

RedRajah said:

The Jones Act Waiver For Puerto Rico Just Expired And Won't Be Renewed

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This is dumb. Apart for the humanitarian crisis hanging by a thread, Puerto Rico is the 5th largest pharma manufacturing spots on the planet. It will hurt the mainland sometime soon and force supplies to come from China, India or Brazil.

Way to go, Donnie boy. So much for "America First(tm)"... *shrug*

-cb

cbenoi1 said:

This is dumb. Apart for the humanitarian crisis hanging by a thread, Puerto Rico is the 5th largest pharma manufacturing spots on the planet. It will hurt the mainland sometime soon and force supplies to come from China, India or Brazil.

Way to go, Donnie boy. So much for "America First(tm)"... *shrug*

-cb

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Why would cheaper shipping from Puerto Rico force supplies to come from elsewhere? If Pharmaceuticals cost PR less to ship, they can price their product more competitively, so they'd be liable to sell more product, not less. Seems like the only one who would be hurt is the shipping industry, and the benefits to other US industries should, at a bare minimum, balance out those losses.

Unless there's something I'm missing?

From the link above:

DHS had temporarily waived the Jones Act ― an arguably outdated law that imposes exorbitant shipping costs on the U.S. island ― on Sept. 28. The waiver has meant that Puerto Rico has been able to import food, fuel and supplies more quickly, and for half the cost, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.


With the 1920 law back in effect, the island will go back to paying much higher shipping costs to import supplies. The Jones Act requires that all goods shipped between U.S. ports be carried by U.S.-owned and operated ships, which are more expensive vessels than others in the global marketplace. That’s meant that Puerto Rico pays double the costs for goods from the U.S. mainland compared with neighboring islands ― and that U.S. vessels are making bank.

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Tazlima said:

Why would cheaper shipping from Puerto Rico force supplies to come from elsewhere?

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Because Puerto Rico's pharma has no electricity and no water and no workers.

-cb

Jones Act would be a problem if the operations at the ports were in working order. One of the biggest problems facing Puerto Rico is that they have all this aid but they can't get it out of port. There is a shortage of trucks and drivers. When Maria passed, the share of drivers who showed up able to drive was at roughly 20%.

cbenoi1 said:

From the link above:




Because Puerto Rico's pharma has no electricity and no water and no workers.

-cb

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That's how the storm hurt the industry, and that would be the case regardless of shipping regulations. I still don't see how cheaper shipping, specifically, would make things worse instead of better.

Unless you're saying "shipping will lose money, and thanks to the storm, those losses won't being counterbalanced by increased pharma sales, therefore it's a net loss to the US?" But that doesn't make sense, either, because without products to ship, the shipping industry would be losing out anyway, again, due to the storm rather than trade regulations. Plus cheaper shipping is liable to help the area rebuild more quickly, since funds will stretch further, and the faster things are rebuilt, the sooner the pharma industry can get chugging again.

I really am trying to understand what you're saying, so if you want to clarify further, I'm all ears.

The waiver has meant that Puerto Rico has been able to import food, fuel and supplies more quickly, and for half the cost, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

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As for where the money goes - shipping versus pharma - I suggest you try to find just one sea shipping company on the Dow30 or S&P500 stock indices. Compare that to the number of pharma companies that have labs on PR land which are part of those indices. The conclusion: Pharma brings more to the economy than sea shipping. Yes, it's business US shipping companies can lose, but if the drug manufacturing plants can get back into production faster it's all the better, no? Remember, 20% of world production is gone. That 20% has to come from somewhere. Inventories; but those dry out quickly. Or other companies abroad.

-cb

Xelebes said:

Jones Act would be a problem if the operations at the ports were in working order. One of the biggest problems facing Puerto Rico is that they have all this aid but they can't get it out of port. There is a shortage of trucks and drivers. When Maria passed, the share of drivers who showed up able to drive was at roughly 20%.

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Seems like you expect those numbers are going to stay the same throughout the recovery. I'm betting they won't. As more roads are cleared, more driver will join in. There will come a point where pretty much all roads are cleared and pretty much all available drivers will be on deck and goods will start flowing as they should. I hope this comes soon. But the Jones act waiver will no longer be enacted then. Is that a problem?

-cb