JUNE 13, 2013 — The U.S. is back on the "White List" of quality flags maintained by the Paris MOU, which coordinates the port state control inspection efforts of 27 countries.

The Paris MoU Committee last month approved the 2012 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flags and Recognized Organizations.

"Recognized Organizations," by the ways , means organizations delegated with statutory responsibilities by flag states. Usually, these are classification societies, but some are not.

The new Paris MOU lists will take effect from July 1 and will be used for prioritizing the targeting of ships for inspection. Ships flying flags listed on the "Black" and "Gray" list are liable for banning from the Paris MOU region after multiple detentions

The Paris MOU Secretariat says the "White, Gray and Black (WGB) List" presents the full spectrum, from quality flags to flags with a poor performance that are considered high or very high risk. It is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a three-year rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections in the period.

On the "White, Gray and Black list" for 2012 a total number of 78 flags are listed: 45 on the "White list", 19 on the "Gray list", and 14 on the "Black list".

The "White List" represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record. Compared with last year, the number of flags on the "White List" has increased by two flags to a total number of 45 flags. Back on the "White List" are the United States and Thailand, which were still on the "Gray List" last year.

France has been placed highest on the list in terms of performance. The next in line of the best performing flags in 2012 are Germany, Hong Kong, Sweden and Greece.

Flags with an average performance are shown on the "Gray List." Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the "White List". At the same time flags at the lower end of the "Gray List" should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the "Black List" next year.

On this year's "Gray List" a total number of 19 flags is recorded. Last year the "Gray List" recorded 20 flags. New on the "Gray List" are the Syrian Arab Republic, which was last year still on the "Black List."

The poorest performing flag is Bolivia (very high risk), followed by Tanzania, Togo, Sierra Leone, Honduras and Moldova (medium to high risk). New on the "Black List" are the flags of Honduras and Dominica.

The Paris MoU also agreed on the performance listing of Recognized Organizations (ROs). ROs have been delegated with statutory responsibilities by flag States. This list uses the same method of calculation as the flag State table but counts only those detentions, which the Paris MoU considers to be directly related to a statutory survey carried out by the Recognized Organization and a minimum number of 60 inspections per RO are needed before the performance is taken into account for the list. In 2012 30 ROs are recorded on the performance list.

Among the best performing Recognized Organizations were: American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Lloyd's Register (UK) (LR)

The lowest performing Recognized Organizations were: Phoenix Register of Shipping (Greece) (PHRS) INCLAMAR (Cyprus) Register of Shipping (Albania) (RSA)

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