Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2003)

Government Update • Maritime Security foreign ports. A few voices counseled against this unilateral approach.

Surprisingly, the Coast Guard was silent. Admittedly, the agency had its hands full ramping up maritime security in all U.S. ports and orchestrating devel- opment of international maritime securi- ty standards, but its silence was per- ceived by some in Congress as provid- ing the green light needed to move ahead swiftly and unilaterally.

The MTSA was enacted on November 25. 2003. At the time, it was considered a great step forward in enhancement of maritime security and as an early endorsement of the international mar- itime security standards being devel- oped under the auspices of the

International Maritime Organization (IMO). At an international diplomatic conference held in London on

December 9-13. 2002. parties (led by the United States) adopted amendments to the International Convention for the

Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS

Convention). The major change to the

SOLAS Convention was the

International Ship and Port Facility

Security (ISPS) Code.

To the casual observer, the ISPS Code and the vessel security planning require- ments of the MTSA appeared to be vir- tual mirror images, with both requiring development and implementation of ship (or vessel) security plans that estab- lished physical security, passenger and cargo security, and crew security, among other things.

The ISPS Code, though, provided that the ship security plan was to be reviewed and approved by or on behalf of the flag administration. The MTSA required security plans for all vessels operating in U.S. waters to be submitted to and approved by the U.S. Coast

Guard. The MTSA also required that the vessel security plan address several unique issues, such as consistency with the overall U.S. national maritime trans- portation security plan.

The U.S. Coast Guard, working under a tight deadline imposed by Congress and pressured to develop its maritime security program in a manner consistent with the ISPS Code, latched onto a vague provision in the preamble to the

MTSA stating that it is in the best inter- ests of the United States to implement new international instruments that estab- lish a maritime security system. Now is a good time to state that I concur with the view currently espoused by the

Coast Guard that an international approach to maritime security is prefer- able to a unilateral approach. After all. I was one of those few voices crying in the wilderness back when the legislation was still in draft form.

The Coast Guard wrote both its inter- im regulations and its final regulations so as to be consistent with the interna- tional standard established by the ISPS

Code and other amendments to the

SOLAS Convention. It did this by exempting from the strictures of the ves- sel security plan requirements foreign ships that are subject to the SOLAS

Convention and have on board a valid

International Ship Security Certificate.

The Coast Guard has emphatically stat- ed that it will utilize its Port State

Control program to require full compli- ance by such ships will all applicable international security requirements. At the same time, the agency has stated that it does not want these foreign ships to submit security plans to it for review.

One of the reasons (although not the primary reason) that the Coast Guard does not want to receive any of the approximately 40.000 foreign vessel security plans is lack of resources. As is :

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