How much longer will we be the “baddies” in the film?
Friday of the 1st of July in London, was the location for the Conference of the Organization
of European Maritime Law which theme was “The Maritime Industry in the New Millennium”.
Among the invited to this conference were the European Safety Commissioner,
Mr. Willem de Ruiter and the outgoing president of Intertanko, Mr. Westye Hoegh.
Lloyd’s List, in an extensive article covering the conference, has
not only mentioned the opinions of these distinguished member of the
maritime industry but has also mentioned the concerns and
discussions, expressed openly and without hesitation, about Panama.
It seems that there is an overall concern about Flag States and about
IMO being unable to make Administrations comply with their
regulations, and Mr. Ruiter went one step further commenting on this
feeling when he said that IMO would not achieve its goal of
implementing existent regulations.
Mr. Hoegh, in his intervention, said that the “ONLY” way to achieve
this implementation is to transfer the authority to Port States.
Mr. Ruiter then pointed out that the ineffectiveness of IMO rested on
the implementation of the conventions.
But the worst was to come. The speakers were talking about the Flag
States’ investigations of accidents when Panama’s name was mentioned
and was then hardly criticized for not investigating its accidents.
Black humour came into the room when Mr. Hoegh, not agreeing with what
Mr. Ruiter had said, said in a humoristic and sarcastic way that it
was not true that Panama did not investigated accidents. “Panama has
investigated ONE accident”, said Mr. Hoegh while having a laugh or
two with the presents due to his comic and humorous comment.
Around 22 percent of the world merchant fleet is under the Panama
flag and, under the SOLAS Convention, Panamá must investigate any
significant accident onboard a Panamanian vessel.
Currently, there is an ongoing discussion within IMO, in case the
reader is not aware of, about including in international regulations
the use of the so-called “black boxes” as compulsory so as to obtain
info and data after an accident, just like in the air industry.
Mr. Ruiter went further by saying that these black boxes would be of no
use unless Flag States would properly investigate the accidents.
The article goes on by talking about Mr. Ruiter’s statements but at
the end it goes back to the Panama subject, saying that whether to
exercise or not international conventions on European waters should
not be the privilege of countries like Panama and Liberia.
The reader can appreciate that the line of action within the European
Union is that of not only keep on criticizing Panama but also keep it
on check so as to prevent it to show the strength it has. I think it
is extremely important that Panama’s maritime sector, once and for
all, grows aware of the importance of carry out our duties so we can
also exercise our rights
As it was mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Panama has to be elected
into the IMO Council in the upcoming November. We must be elected,
thus staying “in the game” and we cannot allow the European Union to
threaten us through their Port State Controls, being Panama’s huge
chunk in the world’s fleet secured.
If Europe had in its registries the number of vessels that are flying
Panama’s flag today then it would be impossible to stop them of doing
whatever they wanted to do in the name of its big registry. But that
is not the case today and its fleet is completely reduced and is of a
convenience status, offering subsidies and being controlled by the
unions. Lack of flexibility and poor economic vision were the main
drivers behind shipowners leaving Europe to look for registries with
better economical incentives, effectively killing the European fleet.
Now that Europe has realized how much dependant of the shipping
industry as the way of importing and exporting goods they are, they
desperately want the decision power back. They complain about
environmental damages yet their rivers are being contaminated by
their local industries.
But let’s not fool ourselves with these facts. The truth is that if
Europe does starts harassing our ships while calling at its ports
then shipowners will start an exodus from our registry to avoid being
the target of Port State Control inspections in European ports.
Panama badly needs to organize its maritime sector and avoid Port
States to seize control. But to achieve this we need to show that we
are capable of good organization, coordination, control,
investigation and punitive actions. How long more will it take this
message to achieve some action? Hopefully, before it is too late. How
long more will it take the AMP to get the priority it deserves? To
get enough budget? How long more it will take for us to realize what
a strong noise we are capable of making? My guess is that it will be
until 50 Panamanian-flagged ships are detained each day and shipowners
will rather take their ships out of our registry and into
the flag of the Republic of “WHO-KNOWS-WHERE-BUT-DON’T-DISTURB-ME”.
My hope is that it will not take that long and that making use of our
brains and our resources we can stop being the bad guys of the film
and go on to be the most respected and praised stars of the industry…
Hopefully we will start thinking about this before it is too late
because if we do not respect ourselves, then who will?
© 2000 Maria Dixon - ISM Shipping Solutions Ltd.
Translated from the original version. An
edited version was
published in Mundo Maritimo section of El Universal, Grupo
Editorial Universal, S.A. Panamá, with permission from the
Author
