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The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is encouraging the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control to ensure that a harmonised approach to PSC inspections has been developed in advance of the 1 January 2015 implementation deadline of the 0.1% Sulphur Emission Control Areas (ECAs), established in accordance with MARPOL Annex VI.

ICS has underlined the shipping industry's commitment to full compliance with the IMO sulphur ECA requirements from January 2015. However, ICS is concerned that information collected by its member national shipowners' associations suggests that many governments are not yet prepared to implement the requirements in a uniform manner, in order to ensure the prevention of a potentially serious market distortion.

ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe explained: "The shipping industry is investing billions of dollars in order to ensure compliance with this major regulatory change, and the huge costs involved could have a profound impact on the future structure of the entire shipping industry. We therefore think it is vital that governments get the details of any PSC intervention right as we enter a new world in which fuel costs for many ships will increase overnight by 50% or more."

He added: "There is only six months to go and it is vital that the Paris MOU and its Member States - in co-ordination, as may be appropriate, with the United States and the European Commission - clarify all of the details of ECA implementation with respect to PSC inspection as soon as possible. ICS believes it is important for the maintenance of fair competition that implementation occurs throughout the Paris MOU region in a consistent and harmonised manner."

ICS has just written to the Paris MOU in order to draw attention to the global shipping industry's serious concern with respect to the sulphur ECA implementation. With the exception of the United States, all of those coastal nations that are located within the IMO sulphur ECAs (in North America, the North Sea and the Baltic) are party to the Paris MOU.
ICS has raised a number of PSC inspection issues with respect to MARPOL Annex VI on which it believes it is vital that a harmonised approach is developed and agreed by the Paris MOU in advance of the implementation date.

These issues include:

• Whether referring to the bunker delivery note (BDN) will be the only principal method of inspection, with further sampling/analysis of fuel taking place only once examination of the BDN suggests clear grounds to suspect non-compliance, or when there is a previous history of non-compliance with MARPOL Annex VI;

• The procedures to be followed, with reference to applicable IMO Guidelines, in the event that sampling or analysis is undertaken during PSC inspections;

• The procedures that might be followed with respect to ships that transit an ECA without calling at a Port State located within an ECA;

• The extent to which a consistent approach will be shown with respect to any discretion for minor technical violations (e.g. those that might arise from fuel switching when a vessel enters an ECA) as opposed to deliberate use of the wrong grade of fuel, or with respect to any discretion that might be applied for a limited period after January 2015, and the criteria to be applied during PSC inspections with respect to alternative compliance measures such as Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems ('scrubbers') or LNG;

• Scrubbers that ICS believes require a harmonised approach, including the acceptability of 'closed loop' and 'open loop' systems, and the extent to which overboard discharges will be subject to inspection by reference to the relevant IMO Guidelines.