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Changes to Facilitation Convention will make single-window data exchange mandatory in ports around the world within two years
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IMO says amendments adopted include lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic, new practices to prevent maritime corruption in ports
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The amendments adopted at the Facilitation Convention committee meeting to be in force by January 1, 2024
Amendments to the Facilitation (FAL) Convention, which will make single-window data exchange mandatory by 2024 in all ports, have been adopted by the International Maritime Organization in a significant step to accelerate digitalization in shipping.
Other amendments adopted include lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and add new and amended recommended practices to prevent corruption and illicit activities in the maritime sector, the IMO said in a press release on May 23.
The Facilitation Convention, adopted in 1965, contains standards and recommended practices and rules for simplifying formalities, documentary requirements and procedures on ships’ arrival, stay and departure. The convention is being updated continuously, embracing digitalization and automation for procedures, IMO said.
The amendments adopted at the Facilitation Committee (FAL 46) session from May 9 to 13, are expected to come into force on January 1, 2024, London-based IMO said.
The committee also approved the updated Compendium on Electronic Business; approved guidelines to tackle illicit international wildlife trade; and completed its regulatory; scoping exercise on maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS).
The amendments update the provisions of the FAL Convention on mandatory electronic data exchange at ports for ship clearance, IMO said.
The amendments to the annex of the convention will make it mandatory for public authorities to establish, maintain and use single window systems for the electronic exchange of information required on arrival, stay and departure of ships in ports.
Public authorities will have to combine or coordinate the electronic data transmission to ensure information is submitted only once and reused to the maximum extent possible, IMO said.
The committee approved guidelines on authentication, integrity and confidentiality of data exchanges via maritime single windows and related services; and revised guidelines for setting up a maritime single window, the IMO report said.
The updated annex to the FAL Convention includes provisions derived from lessons learned during the pandemic. Contracting governments and relevant public authorities are required to allow ships and ports to remain fully operational in a public health emergency of international concern to maintain functionality of global supply chains to the greatest extent possible.
Public authorities are required to designate port workers and ships’ crew as key workers (or equivalent), regardless of their nationality or the flag of their ship, when in their territory.
Updates to the FAL Convention take a systemic approach to addressing corruption associated with the ship-shore interface in ports. Contracting governments will be required to encourage public authorities to assess the risks of corruption and address them by developing and taking preventive measures to strengthen integrity, transparency and accountability. The committee approved guidance to implement and adopt anti-maritime corruption measures.
The committees also approved the following:
- An updated version of the IMO Compendium on Facilitation and Electronic Business including data sets on ship reporting systems; ship and company certificates; ship registry and company details; inspections, and Port State Control inspection history.
- Guidelines for prevention and suppression of smuggling of wildlife on ships engaged in international maritime traffic. The guidelines should be a tool to fight wildlife trafficking in the maritime sector and must be implemented in accordance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
- The outcome of the regulatory scoping exercise that analyzed relevant ship safety treaties under the remit of the committee to assess how maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) could be regulated. An MSC-LEG-FAL joint working group on MASS will be set up to give advice and explore ways to address common issues identified by the three committees.
