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BIMCO has co-sponsored a proposal at the 43 rd session of the Facilitation Committee (FAL 43) held at the IMO Headquarters on 8-12 April, putting anti-corruption formally on the IMO agenda going forward.
The sanctions landscape for the container trade has grown increasingly complex over the past decade. To provide the container industry with a bespoke contractual solution that addresses the practical and commercial realities of the liner trade BIMCO has developed a Sanctions Clause for Container Vessel Time Charter Parties 2020.
The sanctions landscape has grown increasingly complex since BIMCO published its Sanctions Clause for Time Charter Parties in 2010 and the Designated Entities Clause for Charter Parties in 2013. International sanctions regimes are constantly changing with new restrictions being added and new persons and entities being listed. A violation of sanctions restrictions can have severe consequences and in the worst cases can lead to parties being listed as sanctioned parties. Therefore, carefully worded sanctions clauses in charter parties and other contracts are vital for internationally trading companies to help them manage and mitigate their sanctions risk and to enable them to continue to do business while remaining compliant with the various sanctions regimes. The absence of a standard BIMCO sanctions clause for voyage charter parties has resulted in owners and charterers amending the BIMCO Sanctions Clause for Time Charter Parties or drafting bespoke clauses. BIMCO has therefore developed this sanctions clause for use in voyage charter parties so that there is an industry standard clause. It is intended to provide a balanced allocation of the risks posed by sanctions as between owners and charterers. This clause is intended for use in all trades except for container trades. A separate sanctions clause for the container trades is under development. This clause was published on 19 December 2019. It is a sanctions clause that also covers issues related to designated entities previously found in BIMCO’s Designated Entities Clause for Charter Parties 2013. This new sanctions clause should be used instead of the old Designated Entities Clause.
BIMCO, the world’s largest international shipping organisation, has now launched an anti-corruption clause for charter parties. The new clause will give owners and charterers a contractual platform for cooperative action to resist demands for illegal payments from port officials and others.
The Anti-Corruption Clause for Charter Parties 2015 provides market users with a regime for responding to unlawful demands for gifts in cash or kind, such as cigarettes or alcohol. It is designed for use in both voyage and time charters and sets out a series of steps with the contracting parties working together to resist such demands but if this fails, owners’ rights to hire or uninterrupted laytime and demurrage are protected. Termination, by either party, is the ultimate sanction but a high threshold has been set so that it cannot be easily used as an exit from an inconvenient charter. This clause was published on 7 December 2015.
BIMCO's position has been approved by the BIMCO Board of Directors.
The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) has recently launched a survey concerning corrupt practices in Ukraine. Such practices may take many forms e.g. demands for facilitation payments (low level payments paid to low level government officials to complete routine tasks the company is entitled to), cash payments or in kind requests made by various port authorities.
