Archive Report
Archive Report
U.S. Merchant Marine and World Trade
Reconsideration of U.S. Merchant Marine Policy
Anew policy to aid the troubled American merchant marine is in the making. A year-long review by President Johnson's Cabinet-level Maritime Advisory Committee and special task forces is expected to lead, before the year is out, to a formal statement of the problems and the proposals for tackling them. The committee's final recommendations may become the first order of business when Congress reconvenes next January. Giving urgency to the new program is recognition that the existing system of subsidies, established by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, has not kept this country's shipping in a strong competitive position.
Most observers think that an adequate program for the shipping industry will have to involve subsidies or ...