American Seafoods Subsidiaries Lose Round Over Jones Act Fines

A federal judge on Sept. 28 sided against Alaska seafood shippers who say they and other companies have wrongly been hit with more $350 million in penalty notices from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for alleged violations of the Jones Act.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage denied a request by Kloosterboer International Forwarding and Alaska Reefer Management to stop the federal government from imposing further penalties as the case proceeds, according to her 25-page order.

The two companies, part of the American Seafoods Group family, are part of a supply chain that moves seafood from Dutch Harbor in Western Alaska to the Eastern U.S., passing through the port of Bayside in Canada near the border with Maine. They say the notices, issued this summer, threaten the movement of the seafood and jobs in Alaska and the Lower 48.

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