+5 Yes, Puerto Rico is widely considered a colony—or often described as the world’s oldest colony—due to its status as an unincorporated U.S. territory. While residents are U.S. citizens, they lack voting representation in Congress, cannot vote for president,

  • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
    2·
    2 days ago

    From the first article you linked:

    Under the Jones Act, any vessel can enter Puerto Rico. In fact, many foreign vessels enter Puerto Rico regularly, importing goods from countries around the world. However, transportation of goods between two U.S. ports must be carried out by a vessel that was built in the U.S. and operated primarily by Americans. This law doesn’t single out Puerto Rico – it applies to all U.S. ports, the only exception being the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    Don’t get me wrong, I hate the Jones Act as much as any rational American would, but from what I hear, they get a grab bag of exemptions on taxes when moving goods to/from South America (I suppose via non-US ships and via aircraft).

    I don’t have the time for proper research at the moment to try to find what my dudes have talked about when it comes to laxer import/export controls, but may revisit later today if I get some down time.