RealClearPolicy has an article about the Jones Act, which requires ships carrying cargo between two U.S. ports be registered in, built in and crewed by U.S. crews. The practical effect is that few things are shipped between U.S. ports, because U.S. unions make that costly.
An oddball side effect of Jones is to require foreign registered and crewed cruise ships - essentially all ocean-going cruise ships - to visit a foreign port on each cruise, even when it is out of the way and essentially pointless. I have experienced this.
Cruises from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Hawaii and back usually stop at Ensenada for perhaps 4 hours on the way home, thus becoming Jones Act legal. Few view this stop as adding much to the trip, but it makes it a day longer and burns extra fuel. The DrsC remain on board while docked in Ensenada.
On the other hand, West Coast cruises to Alaska stop in Victoria or Vancouver, Canada, and that is no hardship as both are nice ports. But the rule means there are no ships running up and down either major coast picking up and dropping off passengers along the way.
If that doesn't that strike you as odd, it should. Europeans use big ocean-going ferries to make trips, and can take their car along. Cabins are available for longer trips, overnight for instance. And they hit the duty-free shops aboard.
Absent the Jones Act I'll bet European ferry companies would run similar routes along our coasts. You and I would benefit by leaving the 'driving' to them while having our car and its generous contents - camping gear, for example - at our destination.
