The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS)
and the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) say ship recycling
licences proposed by the EU could be seen as “anti-competitive” and would
undermine the IMO’s own efforts to improve working and environmental conditions
at shipbreaking yards in developing countries.
The proposed new regulation, currently being
considered by the European Commission (EC), would force ships sailing under any
flag to pay for ship recycling licences when calling at EU ports.
The proceeds from the licences would be paid
into a proposed EU Fund and would be paid back at the end of the vessel’s
working life on the condition that the ship is recycled at a yard approved by
the EC.
“As well as being unduly complex, widely
impractical and very difficult for the EU to administer, the establishment of
such a fund will be an affront to the international community, which has
adopted the Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling, whose standards have
already been incorporated into a similar EU regulation,” said ECSA’s secretary
general, Patrick Verhoeven.
The ICS and ECSA say the proposal will also
cause serious problems with the EU’s trading partners, including China, India,
Japan and the US.
“Such a draconian unilateral measure,
especially if applied to non-EU ships, is likely to be seen by EU trading
partners as anti-competitive interference into the conduct of international
shipping. There is a real danger that other nations would apply retaliatory
measures,” said ICS secretary general Peter Hinchliffe.
The two organisations say the EU should
concentrate on getting EU member states to ratify the IMO’s Hong Kong
Convention, and to recognise the efforts being made by recycling yards in Asia
to be certified in accordance with IMO standards.
ECSA and the ICS are preparing a detailed
commentary on the EU Fund proposal, which will be shared with the EC, EU
members tates and the European Parliament.
Source: splash
24/7. 8 July 2016
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