The world’s national
shipowners’ associations in nearly 50 countries – represented by the European
Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), the International Chamber of
Shipping (ICS) and the Asian Shipowners’ Forum (ASF) – have united to condemn
proposed amendments, to be voted on by the European Parliament this week
(probably on April 18), on a new EU Ship Recycling Regulation.
Shipowners especially
object to the proposal by the EP Environment Committee to impose a tax on
merchant ships of all flags calling at EU ports to fund ship recycling
facilities in the European Union.
“This is an
unacceptable tax on trade and will cause grave offense to the EU’s trading
partners, not just major ship recycling nations such as China and India, but to
major shipping nations such as Japan and Singapore. These proposals have simply
not been thought through.” said ECSA Secretary General Alfons Guinier. “As a
matter of principle, it is wrong to impose a tax on one industrial sector in
order to assist another, especially without proper consultation with the
parties affected. Shipping is a global industry operating under global rules.
The European Parliament should really not be contemplating measures which will
work against the aim to improve recycling conditions globally, an aim which we
fully support.”
The shipowners’ groups
also believe that, if adopted, the EP amendments will fatally undermine the
entry into force of the International Convention for Safe and Environmentally
Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong) which was adopted by the UN International
Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2009 - with full industry support - to improve
working and environmental conditions in the world’s ship recycling yards, most
of which are located in Asia.
The IMO Convention has
not yet entered into force, pending the development of detailed Guidelines on
implementation that have only recently been finalised by IMO. But the Convention has the full support of the
global shipping industry, which has already produced its own recommendations so
that shipowners can comply with the IMO requirements in advance of governments
formally ratifying the Hong Kong Convention.
“If the proposed
amendments are taken forward, it will be seriously damaging to the Hong Kong
Convention. The EP measures would therefore be completely counterproductive.”
said ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe. “It’s not just the tax. Many of
the other measures being proposed, such as sanctions against non-EU shipowners
who don’t comply, and the creation of a unilateral list of recycling facilities
that meet EU requirements, will almost certainly mean that Asian nations will
be unable to ratify the IMO Convention. This will undermine years of hard work
by governments at IMO (including EU Member States) as well as by shipowners and
ship recyclers to develop a binding global solution that will actually work.”
ASF Secretary General,
Yuichi Sonoda, added, “It is important to understand that under the terms of
the Hong Kong Convention’s entry into force criteria, it is not possible for
the Convention to enter into force unless it is ratified by the major ship
recycling nations. An opportunity to improve standards via the Hong Kong
Convention will be lost for a generation by these astounding and
incomprehensible proposals which are creating huge concern amongst industry and
governments alike in Asia.”
If the proposals are
taken forward by the European Parliament, the shipping industry will be working
with EU Member States to ensure that the proposals are stopped before it is too
late. The international shipping industry is also working with governments in
non-EU shipping nations, which can be expected to make strong representations
in Brussels should the European Parliament vote the proposals through.
Source: MarineLink. 15 April 2013
http://www.marinelink.com/news/parliament-proposals353477.aspx
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