To mark the occasion of IMO World Maritime Day on September 25, and its theme this year of ‘IMO Conventions: Effective Implementation’, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has produced a brochure which is being circulated throughout the industry by its member national shipowners’ associations.
The ICS brochure highlights the importance of global rules for a global industry, and the need for governments to ratify and implement IMO Conventions and regulations, which have contributed so much to the significant improvement of the shipping’s safety record and environmental performance.
The alternative of having a patchwork of differing national or regional maritime rules would mean chaos and market distortion, ICS said.
The ICS brochure also comments on flag state enforcement and Port State Control, and welcomes the decision by the IMO Assembly in 2013 to make the IMO Member State Audit Scheme mandatory, accompanied by the adoption of a new IMO Instrument Implementation Code.
ICS also highlights the continuing publication of its own Flag State Performance Table and makes no apology for continuing to subject flag states to scrutiny in the same way that ships and company procedures are rightly subject to inspection by governments.
The ICS World Maritime Day brochure and its Flag State Performance Table can both be downloaded from the ICS website.