The Donald Trump administration is reportedly giving serious consideration to a measure that would partially open the US shipbuilding market to allied nations, including South Korea, according to sources familiar with the government’s discussions. This move is part of a broader strategy to leverage allied industrial capacity to revitalize the U.S. maritime sector, which faces severe competitive pressures, particularly from China.
The administration has reportedly informed the South Korean government that it is contemplating bypassing, through executive order, key protectionist laws that have long restricted foreign involvement in the US maritime industry. These laws include the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment, which mandates that U.S. naval vessels and major components be built domestically, and the Jones Act, a long-standing law from the 1920s that requires commercial vessels operating between US ports to be American-built, American-owned, and American-crewed.
The Jones Act and the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment are frequently cited by critics as major contributors to the decline in competitiveness of the U.S. shipbuilding industry. While bipartisan legislative efforts to reform these laws have been introduced in the U.S. Congress multiple times, none have yet succeeded. President Trump is reportedly leaning towards using an executive order to create exceptions, viewing the immediate need to bolster U.S. shipbuilding capability as too urgent to wait for congressional action.
This consideration is closely linked to the ongoing 'Make American Shipbuilding Great Again' (MASGA) project, a central component of a larger trade and investment deal between Washington and Seoul. Korean shipbuilders, world leaders in commercial and defense vessel production, have been exploring various compliance options for the MASGA project, such as producing ship blocks in South Korea for final assembly in the U.S., or constructing "empty hull" vessels—ships without interior fittings—to be completed stateside. However, industry players had previously determined that executing such plans would be severely hampered without reforms or waivers to the aforementioned two laws.
Meanwhile, working-level negotiators from both nations have provisionally agreed to establish a dedicated consultative body to iron out the details of this shipbuilding cooperation. This committee will focus on the practical implementation of the MASGA initiative, which is a major part of South Korea's pledge to invest significantly in the U.S. maritime industrial base. The collaboration is seen as a strategic necessity by both allies to pool industrial resources and maintain a competitive edge in global maritime power, especially in light of a growing regional adversary. The finalization of the specific mechanisms and legal carve-outs is now the primary focus for the newly agreed-upon cooperation council.
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