joint letter<\/a> from the UNCTAD and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said the world\u2019s reliance on maritime transport makes it more important than ever to keep ships moving, ports open and cross-border trade flowing, and to support ship crew changeovers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The agencies also reaffirmed the urgent need for \u201ckey worker\u201d designation for seafarers, marine personnel, fishing vessel personnel, offshore energy sector personnel and service personnel at ports.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch designation will ensure that the trade in essential goods, including medical supplies and food, is not hampered by the pandemic and the associated containment measures,\u201d the joint statement said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe emphasize that, for trade to continue during these critical times, there is a need to keep ships moving, ports open and cross-border trade flowing, while at the same time ensuring that border agencies can safely undertake all necessary controls. International collaboration, coordination and solidarity among all is going to be key to overcoming the unprecedented global challenge posed by the pandemic and its longer-term repercussions,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Maritime transport depends on the 2 million seafarers who operate the world\u2019s merchant ships, which carry more than 80% of global trade by volume, including most of the world\u2019s food, energy, raw materials and manufactured goods.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s estimated that by mid-June 2020 as many as 300,000 seafarers a month will require international flights to enable ships\u2019 crew changeover. About half will travel home by aircraft for repatriation while the other half will join ships. And approximately 70,000 cruise ship staff are waiting for their repatriation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Over the last several months, however, government-imposed travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been hampering the process, raising serious crew well-being and safety concerns.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking beyond the current situation, UNCTAD and IMO urged governments to pursue collaborative efforts to identify and remove any unnecessary regulatory obstacles to post-pandemic recovery and to facilitate maritime transport and trade in these difficult times,\u201d the two agencies said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey encouraged pragmatic approaches, such as granting exemptions and waivers where necessary and appropriate. Efforts should be made to facilitate electronic means for ship-shore, administrative and commercial interactions. There should be effective sharing of pre-arrival information and other COVID-19-related reporting requirements for ships, as well as the provision of adequate equipment and resources to customs and border control stations in ports,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a joint letter from the UNCTAD and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said the world\u2019s reliance on maritime transport makes it more important than ever to keep ships moving, ports open and cross-border trade flowing, and to support ship crew changeovers. The agencies also reaffirmed the urgent need for \u201ckey worker\u201d designation for seafarers, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[5963,3157,1192,4153,7489,2690,7488,3510],"class_list":["post-11401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-bodies","tag-calls","tag-crew","tag-designation","tag-facilitating","tag-key","tag-reiterate","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/11402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}