Shipowners Say Industry Is Being Choked By Legislation

International shipowners said the maritime industry is being choked by legislation and that they are unfairly targeted as the culprits for all ills in the sector. Addressing some 1,000 delegates from 35 countries who attended the bi-annual Maritime Cyprus Conference in the port town of Limassol, shipowners outlined the problems the industry faces entering the new millennium. There was a heated discussion on Flags of Convenience (FoC), under which approximately 50 percent of all global tonnage is registered. Mark Dickinson, Assistant General Secretary of The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) announced to delegates that within the next two years national flag states would also be assessed for operating substandard vessels. Criteria is due to be ready next month. Flag states already earmarked for scrutiny include Turkey, Romania, Ukraine and Russia, according to Dickinson. Dickinson was a lone defender among a majority of shipowners of the ITF's targeting of FoCs. ITF has 27 flag states on its list of FoC's including Cyprus. "I believe firmly that the ITF has always been right on the ills of the FoC system and I don't believe anyone is prepared to ignore evidence that is there for all to see," he said. However, David Dearsley, Deputy Secretary General of the International Shipping Federation (ISF), blasted the ITF's New Delhi Policy on FoCs, a 1998 review of the 1948 Oslo campaign to target flags of convenience. He said the ITF uses its power to declare FoCs as a means to create a hit-list of flag states which don't comply with national union demands. "The Delhi policy contains the catch-all provision that the ITF Fair practices Commission has the right unilaterally to declare any register as FoC," Dearsley said. "There is no sign of real determination to move away from the old policy of confrontation with good employers in order to target the bad." Dagfinn Lunde, Managing Director of Intertanko shipping, said too many ships were being targeted by port state control, often influenced by a flag's reputation as an FoC. "Sometimes there is a reason for the detention, and sometimes you wonder," he said.