Study On Legal Issues Of Maritime Facilitation And Port State Supervision

The object of 1965 Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic(FAL)is to reduce the requirements and procedures of the instruments for the arrival,stay and departure of ships on international voyages and achieve the global maritime facilitation.FAL require the contracting countries to provide convenient and efficient access services for the foreign ships to the greatest extent in their ports.However,maritime facilitation also needs to be supervised by the contracting countries.Such supervision includes the port state control and the customs clearance of the ship's goods by the authorities of the Port State.Different systems and methods of supervision will influence the degrees of the realization of maritime facilitation.Countries with different values ??of national security,trade freedom,and shipping development level of will create conflicts under the unified maritime facilitation framework stipulated by the Convention,but the conflict is not an irreconcilable one.This article mainly focuses on the following issues: Why there are conflicts between maritime facilitation and Port State Supervision,where the conflicts will arise,how such conflicts are coordinated,and what measures China will take to respond to the challenges of maritime facilitation.The part of the introduction introduces the research status and significance of the maritime facilitation.Coordinating the conflicts between maritime facilitation and port state supervision is the focus of this article.The first chapter mainly analyzes the dilemma encountered in the realization of maritime facilitation from the perspective of empirical analysis,and discusses thecontent of port state regulation stipulated by the FAL Convention.Improper supervision of foreign ships in port countries affects the convenience of navigation.This chapter selects the port state supervision examples in Australia and Canada.In the supervision of foreign ships,Australia and Canada have adopted strict detention measures for foreign ships,which affects the normal operation plan of the ship.The FAL Convention stipulates that public administration authorities in port states,including port state control departments and customs departments,provide good guidance for the development of port state supervision.The second chapter mainly introduces the origin and development of the International Convention on Maritime Transport and analyzes the standard practices and recommended practices of the Convention.In the content,the standard practices and recommended practices mainly involve four aspects: documents required on arrival and departure of persons or cargo;measures to facilitate clearances of cargo,passengers,crew,and baggage;personnel and luggage;public health and quarantine including sanitary measures for animals and plants,and services at ports.In the terms of character,the standard practice is that the Convention imposes mandatory obligations for Contracting Parties,and the recommended practice is non-mandatory.In the aspect of the implementation,there are a higher demanding set for the recommended practices than standard practices.Under the standard practices and recommended practices,the authority whose purpose is to promote maritime facilitation is the public administration of a country.According to the different public administration responsibilities,the authorities include the Port State Control and the port state customs department.As the latest practice in maritime facilitation,the 2016 amendment to the FAL convention require the contracting parties to improve the electronic information exchange system and foreign crew landing and rest rights.The third chapter explains the necessity of port state supervision and the conflict between port state supervision and maritime facilitation.The necessity of port state control stems from the obligation of international law to require contracting parties to perform the jurisdiction of the flag State and the jurisdiction of the port State.Atpresent,the port state jurisdiction is the common way to supervise the ship.First,the large number of ships which hang the convenient flags arising makes it difficult for the flag state to perform supervising.Second,the characteristics of the ships also make it difficult for the flag state to excise its jurisdiction.The national security protection and the prevention of environmental pollution require countries to supervise foreign ships.In the aspect of national security,port state control protects the country from the risk of maritime terrorism;in environmental pollution,port state control mainly examines the equipment,crew equipment,and certificate requirements of foreign ships.In addition,regulating the competition order in the shipping market and preventing unfair competition,combating low-standard ships also require port states to fulfill their supervisory obligations.Therefore,the pursuit of maritime facilitation will inevitably lead to conflicts with port state supervision,including conflicts between maritime facilitation and national security,and conflicts caused by improper supervision of port states.The fourth chapter discusses the coordination of maritime facilitation and port state supervision and introduces the way of coordination from the perspectives of regionalization and internationalization.The regional coordination mechanism is mainly expressed in the form of a memorandum.This article mainly introduces the implementation of the Paris Memorandum and the Tokyo Memorandum.The memorandum lists a series of standards for ships.Therefore,according to the items listed in the memorandum,countries can upgrade the technical level of their ships shorten the inspection cycle,and thus improve the level of maritime facilitation.The internationalization coordination mechanism involves another aspect of port state regulation.The procedures of customs' review will also affect the degree of realization of maritime facilitation.The reason for the improper supervision of the port state is that the port state does not strictly implement the PSC in accordance with the provisions of international conventions.Therefore,in the international coordination mechanism,the port state needs to carry out the PSC for foreign vessels within the scope of the international convention.The last chapter analyzes the current situation of the practice of maritime facilitation in China,including the legislation and practice of port state control as well as the customs clearance.In the part of port state control,it involves the content of Chinese port state control legislation and the legal basis.In the current situation of Chinese port state control legislation,there exist many port state control departments,causing the problems in the scope of supervision.In addition,the "Safety Supervision Rules for Ships",as the main rule for the supervision of foreign ships,puts the domestic ships and foreign ships under the same rule,leading to an unreasonable result.In addition,the lack of understanding of the provisions stipulated by the memorandum and convention is another problem.In the part of customs clearance,there also exist legal documents for the customs clearance procedures and the obligations under TFA related with the practice of China.According the problems mentioned above,it is necessary to clarify the main body of supervision,improve the transformation of legislation and improve the quality of the law enforcement team and in the part of customs,it is necessary to establish a "single window" to strengthen mutual recognition and cooperation of AEO and enhance the degree of the engagement.