Covering the Cost: The cost of shipping, Jones Act in Hawaii

News admin September 10, 2026 0 Comments

Covering the Cost: The cost of shipping, Jones Act in Hawaii

In HNN’s livestream show “Covering the Cost with Annalisa Burgos,” we break down the numbers behind Hawaii’s affordability crisis in candid conversations with financial experts, entrepreneurs and community leaders.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – In this episode of “Covering the Cost” on Sept. 9 at 12:30 p.m., Annalisa Burgos talks with Ku’uhaku Park, SVP of Matson, and Melissa Pavlicek, executive director of the Hawaii Harbors Users Group, about the cost of shipping in Hawaii and how a centuries-old law called the Jones Act affects the cost of goods transported between American ports.

Many people blame Hawaii’s high cost of living on more expensive groceries, gas and virtually everything we buy, compared to the U.S. continent. Because we are the most geographically isolated populated area in the world, 85% of all goods are brought in by ship, with shipping costs tacked onto retail prices on everything from cars to beef.

But Park and Pavlicek say it’s unfair to blame high prices on the maritime industry alone, pointing to economic data that shows shipping accounts for 1% to 5% of the total cost of goods in Hawaii. And that figure is not just the ocean voyage.

“So it’s the trucking or the rail on the mainland. It’s the warehousing and distribution on the mainland, then it’s getting it to the port, it’s getting it on the ship, sailing it here, truckers picking up on this side and then warehousing and distribution on this side,” Park said.

And if it needs to go to a neighbor island, the cost includes the interisland journey through Young Brothers, the state-regulated monopoly for interisland cargo.

“The maritime portion obviously is a just a fraction of that,” Park said.

“The real truth is that the actual cost of shipping, when you look at the total price of goods, is quite small,” Pavlicek said, adding that when goods are shipped in container loads, the cost is spread across all the products in the container, which can make shipping costs for a single item appear higher than the overall average. “Relative to what it could be, it’s not so expensive.”

Matson and Pasha operate a duopoly over shipping between the U.S. continent and Hawaii and are often criticized for high rates that are passed down to consumers.

Debate over the Jones Act

Some consumer advocates and business owners blame high shipping rates on a federal law called the Jones Act that prevents foreign-built, -owned and -operated ships from transporting goods between U.S. ports.

Critics believe the law keeps rates high because it requires cargo carriers to use American ships and crews, which have to meet stricter standards and salaries compared to foreign countries, and limits the number of vessels in the industry.

Park said similar laws, known as cabotage laws, exist in other maritime nations and cover trucking, rail and airlines.

Jones Act supporters believe the law ensures the stability and reliability of the local supply chain and workforce.

“We have two shipyards here. If we don’t have adequate work, we lose a shipyard or both of them. Then we’re really jeopardizing Hawaii’s ability to have resilience as well as our national security,” Pavlicek said.

Park said during the COVID-19 pandemic, international carriers stopped sailing for about three months, while Jones Act carriers serving Hawaii kept their regular schedules.

“The Jones Act industry really showed that during COVID, and during the supply chain crisis afterwards, while there were empty shelves, that was more due to hoarding and panic buying,” Park said. “The train never stopped to Hawaii.”

But critics argue even just removing the U.S.-built mandate can provide some relief, without hurting maritime workers.

“The benefits to the consumer would be worth the cost to an individual company or an individual sector,” said Josh Polk, attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, who represented Hawaii rum manufacturer Koloa in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government, claiming the Jones Act is unconstitutional because it discriminates against Hawaii ports.

“The quality of American shipping is protected by things outside the Jones Act, like labor, labor regulations and that kind of thing,” Polk said.

Polk argued the shipping restrictions unfairly drive up the cost of importing raw supplies and exporting products for non-contiguous states like Hawaii and Alaska. The case was dismissed, with the judge ruling the maritime statute is neutral and does not unlawfully favor ports in one specific state over another.

There’ve been waivers to the Jones Act in times of need, including one the Trump administration issued at the start of the Iran War to allow foreign ships to transport oil, fertilizers and other energy products. That’s set to expire on November 15.