Associated Press
SEATTLE — President Donald Trump has signed a waiver for a 264-foot (80.5 meter) fishing vessel stuck in a Washington state shipyard because it was built with too much foreign steel.
The Seattle Times reports the president on Tuesday signed legislation that includes a federal maritime law waiver for the $75 million ship, America’s Finest.
The vessel’s owner, Kirkland-based Fishermen’s Finest, contracted with Anacortes-based Dakota Creek Industries, but the construction shipyard violated the federal Jones Act because its hull steel was cut and bent in Holland and not in the United States.
Dakota Creek shipyard officials have said they didn’t realize the overseas work was extensive enough to violate the law.
The legislation offers a kind of conditional waiver, authorizing U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to revoke the waiver should an investigation determine the violation was intentional.
