Norwegian shipping “can remain strong”

Norway’s shipping industry can remain strong as the country continues its shift toward a service-based economy, but the government must respond to international competition by making the tax system more friendly to Norwegian-flagged shippers. Speaking on the eve of the 2003 Nor-Shipping exhibition in Oslo, Norwegian Shipowners’ Association president Terje Andersen said that shipping is “tailor made” for an economy with high labour costs and which will therefore shift to what he described as “competence-based” industries. Norway, he said, can sustain the world’s third biggest fleet “but the authorities and industry must act” to make the tax regime more competitive. His confidence in the future of shipping did not extend to Norway’s shipyards, though: “They are struggling, and welding steel has no future in Norway.” He noted that the European Union as a whole – Norway is not a member – has a third of the world’s fleet by ownership and a tenth by flag, but that proportion will double when Malta and Cypress join. Critically, since 1996 all major EU countries have set more favourable conditions than Norway for taxation of ship owners and seafarers. Also, he said, the Norwegian system of taxation has not been stable, so unless the country acts it will gradually lose its home-flagged fleet.