Shipmanagers need to speak as one voice to counter the worsening impact of increased political and trade sanctions, a leading shipping lawyer has urged.
“What we are all facing in maritime community at the moment is a US foreign policy that appears to be an extension of their geopolitical arm,” said Julian Clark, global head of shipping at UK law firm Hill Dickinson.
“The position is getting worse and worse,” he told the 6th Annual International Shipowning & Shipmanagement Summit (ISSS) in London Monday.
“We do very much need to speak as an industry with one voice, to educate in order to ensure that the environment and security and the lives of crew are protected.”
But sanctions were among a number of issues of concern, said Bjorn Jebsen, president of the International Ship Managers Association (InterManager)
“We have another problem with the criminalisation of seafarers, ships or officers being arrested. We have to do something about that,” he said.
But Clark seized upon that as another area where the US authorities had made life difficult for shipmanagers. He pointed to last weeks events involving the Grace 1 VLCC where the US State Department was “offering bribes to an Indian master in order to relocate the vessel in order for it to be seized by US authorities”.
“If that’s not exposing an innocent seafarer to criminalisation, then what is?,” he said.
But shipmanagers appear uncertain about how best to react to the problem of trade sanctions.
Former InterManager president Roberto Giorgio said that the industry speaking with one voice as the path for the industry to move forward
“If we don’t speak out, the issue will be the same,” he said.
Others were more reluctant to extend the role of the ship manager to fight against sanctions.
“It’s not for us to wave the flag on the bigger political issues,” said Colombia Ship Management chief executive Mark O’Neil.
“That might be the case for larger organisations [like the IMO],” he said.
Other issues for the industry including new environmental regulations, cargo misdeclaration, how to deal with vetting regimes, death of seafarers in enclosed spaces and lifeboat accidents.
“If you think about it its crazy there are so many lifeboat accidents in a training exercise,” said Jebsen.
InterManager secretary-general Kuba Szymanski said that shipmanagers were in talks with other industries to see what might be learned, including the aviation industry and construction sector.
Thome Ship Management chief executive Olav Nortuns said that sharing information and increased transparency would help deal with some of the issues.
Read all our London International Shipping Week coverage at tinyurl.com/twlisw2019.
