What difference can a flag make?
The shipping industry takes its annual hard look at how well flag states meet their responsibilities and hands out its report card
Add BT as a preferred sourceIt is dangerous to jump to easy conclusions about "open registers" or "flags of convenience", with the terminology depending on your point of view. But the reality is complex; it is not always easy, for example, to define an open register or a "traditional" one.
It is possible, however, to judge flag states by the extent to which they take on their legal responsibilities under international conventions, thanks to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which recently published its latest annual Flag State Performance Table. This can be downloaded free of charge from the ICS website, www.ics-shipping.org/docs/flag-state-performance-table
The ICS table provides an annual overview of the performance of the world's flag states in a number of areas, such as port state control records, ratification of international maritime conventions and attendance at International Maritime Organization (IMO) meetings. The table is mainly aimed at encouraging shipowners and operators to maintain an open dialogue with their flag administrations with respect to improvements that might be necessary.
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