Merchant Marine Allies Partnership Act

Key Points

• Lets the Transportation Department approve some ships tied to U.S. allies to move goods between U.S. ports for up to 5 years at a time, with renewals allowed.
• Creates a State Department list of “ally” countries; countries on that list (including NATO members by default) can qualify ships, owners, and crews for these permissions.
• Allows qualifying ships to be owned and/or crewed by people from listed ally countries, and limits enforcement of some U.S. citizenship and credential rules on those ships.
• If a country is removed from the ally list, ships linked to that country can lose permission quickly (in some cases immediately), and ships built/rebuilt there can be barred during the removal period.
• Cuts a repair tax in certain cases by exempting some repair costs when U.S.-documented ships are repaired in shipyards located in listed ally countries.