ICS - position change on ballast water
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the global trade association for merchant shipowners, has modified its stance towards the ratification by governments of the International Maritime Organization ballast water management convention (IMO BWMC), which has still not yet entered into force despite being adopted more than ten years ago.
Notwithstanding the need to resolve outstanding issues and questions concerning the IMO BWMC implementation, ICS said it 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.
As a result, the ICS will 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.
For the past two years, the ICS and its member national associations have strongly discouraged additional governments from ratifying the convention until serious questions about how the convention would be implemented had been properly addressed.
