Source: Marine Trader
June 15th 2015
The membership of ICS, which comprises national associations from 37 countries (including the newly-admitted Russian Chamber of Shipping), reviewed important regulatory and policy developments affecting global maritime trade.
ICS members welcomed recent efforts by EU Member States to increase Search and Rescue resources for migrants in distress in the Mediterranean, and the subsequent decrease in the numbers of lives lost. However, members agreed that the current level of state-backed Search and Rescue resources available to address the on-going crisis is still woefully insufficient and urgently needs to be dramatically increased.
Speaking after the meeting, ICS Chairman, Masamichi Morooka, said: “It is simply not acceptable that merchant ships are still being routinely called upon by Rescue Co-ordination Centres to assist with the majority of rescue operations currently taking place, having already assisted with the rescue of more than 50,000 people since the crisis started to escalate last year.
“Apart from the fact that commercial ships are wholly unsuitable for rescuing hundreds of people at a time, the Search and Rescue obligations that exist under international law were never created with the current situation in mind.”
ICS members agreed that governments must urgently find a solution to the crisis. In the meantime, while it continues to be necessary for the international community to rescue tens of thousands of people, state-backed Search and Rescue resources must be increased immediately.
“It is unreasonable for governments to continue relying on merchant ships as a long term solution, placing civilian merchant seafarers at considerable risk. The current situation is neither sustainable nor tenable,” said Mr Morooka.
ICS members also welcomed the recent progress made by the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee, in May 2015, towards solving many of the serious implementation problems associated with the IMO Ballast Water Convention. ICS members agreed that this will probably help to ensure that the Convention will now receive sufficient ratifications from governments to enter into force sooner rather than later.
However, members also agreed that those flag states which have not yet ratified the IMO Convention may continue to be deterred from doing so because of the unilateral regime adopted by the United States with respect to the approval of the very expensive new treatment systems required. This currently means that ship owners who, in good faith, install equipment approved in accordance with IMO standards can have no confidence that they will be able to trade to the United States when the IMO Convention eventually enters into force, possibly by the end of 2016.
Masamichi Morooka commented: “ICS members are committed to the implementation of a ballast water treatment regime that will be fit for purpose worldwide. Frankly speaking, the United States is creating an impossible dilemma that can only be solved by the U.S. approving treatment systems immediately and finding a pragmatic approach to reconciling the conflicting timelines within the IMO regime and its own. Apart from the chaos that the United States is creating for international shipping, it is also holding back the ratification of an important IMO Convention that is intended to bring environmental benefits to the entire world, not just the needs of a single country.”