§53408 Regulatory Relief

Summary

A vessel covered by an operating agreement can be used in U.S. foreign trade without limits. The law that limits building, rebuilding, or registering a vessel in another country does not apply on any day the vessel’s operator is getting payments under that operating agreement. If a vessel is re-registered in the United States to run under an operating agreement, its telecom and electronic gear will count as meeting FCC approval only if three things are true: the gear met the prior country's international rules before re-registration; that country has not been identified by the Secretary as inadequately enforcing those rules for the vessel; and when the gear reaches the end of its useful life it is replaced with FCC-approved equipment.