BWM Convention: a difficult birth

摘要

In late 2014, IMO finally relented to years of clamour from nearly every corner of the shipping industry, and elected to re-examine its G8 guidelines for the BWM convention. In return, the International Chamber of Shipping agreed to no longer actively discourage ratification of the BWM Convention. The IMO's change of heart placed a focus on reconciling the guidelines with Port State Control (PSC) testing. Shipowners had been concerned that PSC authorities - some of which they felt to have demonstrated rather arbitrary approaches to the enforcement of maritime laws - might find installed BWM systems non-compliant with their own tests, despite the systems having passed IMO type-approval.