About turn by ICS on ballast convention

ICS points out that the convention has still not yet entered into force, despite having been adopted more than 10 years ago. Although ICS has supported the principles behind the legislation, it has had concerns that questions about its implementation had still to be addressed. As a result ICS policy has been, over the last two years, to discourage any further governments from ratifying the Convention until these questions had been answered. The issues included the lack of robustness of the current IMO type-approval process for the expensive new treatment equipment, the criteria to be used for sampling ballast water during Port State Control inspections, and the need for ‘grandfathering’ of type-approved equipment already or about to be fitted.

However, ICS now recognises that significant progress has been made, not least in the decision by IMO member states to start work immediately on a revision of the G8 type-approval guidelines to make the process for approving ballast water treatment equipment more robust.

The ICS Board of Directors has agreed that the position of ICS is now as follows: “Notwithstanding the need to resolve outstanding issues and questions concerning the implementation of the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention, ICS acknowledges the agreement in principle by the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting in October to address the various concerns raised by the shipping industry. ICS will therefore no longer actively discourage those governments that have not yet done so from ratifying the Convention, in order that it might enter into force sooner rather than later so that amendments to the Convention, which the industry has requested, can then be adopted and implemented by governments as soon as possible.”

ICS is pleased to note that IMO has agreed, in principle, that any shipowner who has invested in first generation treatment equipment, type-approved under the current G8 guidelines, should not be penalised, provided that the equipment is operated and maintained correctly. ICS says it believes that the adoption by IMO of new Port State Control guidelines reflects a fair and pragmatic approach to inspection of ships, provided they are adhered to by governments.

Despite the shift in position by ICS, the Chamber says it will continue to press IMO Member States strongly on the remaining issues.

IMO, meanwhile, has welcomed the softening of the ICS stance. Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu has met with ICS chairman Masamichi Morooka for further discussions, and hopes that the ICS action will trigger at last one major flag state to ratify the convention. At present the percentage of world tonnage required to complete the process stands at 2.46%, and several flag states holding more than 2.5% of the world fleet have not yet signed up.