Port State Control "Vital Part" of Enforcement of IMO Regs on Shipping: Lim

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday May 10, 2017

Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) says Port State Control (PSC) is a "vital part" of enforcement of IMO regulations on shipping.

"Even those conventions that command almost universal coverage of the global fleet, such as SOLAS and MARPOL, only have teeth if they are backed up by an effective implementation infrastructure," said Lim.

The comments came in a speech at the third joint ministerial conference of the Paris and Tokyo Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on PSC in Vancouver, Canada from May 3-4 2017.

As Ship & Bunker has reported, at the conference, 29 countries of the Paris MoU and the Tokyo Mou signed a new Ministerial Declaration on PSC that covers enforcement of sulfur regulations and the Polar Code.

"The success of Port State Control depends ultimately on the harmonisation of PSC inspections among various port States, which implies unified PSC procedures and technical cooperation programmes for training PSC Officers from diverse PSC regimes. This is absolutely vital if the objective of eliminating sub-standard shipping is to be achieved," said Lim.

"To this end, IMO has actively supported and promoted strong and collaborative Port State Control, both through an Assembly resolution and by arranging and hosting workshops to improve communication among the PSC regimes."

In November, PSC authorities across 45 countries, under the Paris MoU and the Tokyo MoU, agreed to conduct a Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) in 2018, focusing on sulfur emissions from ships, including emission control area (ECA) compliance, where applicable.