Paris MoU Group Releases 2010 Rankings

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 June 2011

The Paris MoU Committee in June approved and released the 2010 inspection results, and adopted new performance lists for flag States and Recognized Organizations, effective July 1, 2011.

The 'Black, Grey and White (BGW) List' presents the full spectrum, from quality flags, to flags with a poor performance that are considered high or very high risk. The tables are formulated based on inspection to detention ratios over a three-year rolling period for registries whose ships have been subject to at least 30 inspections.

On the “Black, Grey and White list” for 2010 a total of 84 flags are listed: 18 on the 'black list', 24 on the 'grey list', and 42 on the 'white list'. This is an improvement in registries' performance in the 2009 listings, in which 24 flags were black listed, 19 were on the grey list and 39 were present on the white list.

Most flags that were categorized as very high risk in previous years remain so in 2010. The poorest performing flags are North Korea, Libya, Togo, Sierra Leone and Montenegro. New on the black list are the flags of Tanzania and Azerbaijan, both classified as medium risk.

Flags with an average performance are shown on the grey list. Their appearance on this list is aimed to incentivize these authorities to improve and move to the white list.

On this year’s grey list a total number of 24 flags are recorded. New to the grey list are Egypt, Vietnam, Dominica, Slovakia, Jamaica, Honduras, Belize and Mongolia.

At the other end of the spectrum, the white list represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record.

For 2010, Bermuda has been placed highest on the list in terms of performance, followed by Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

A flag’s ranking is taken into account when ships are targeted for inspection, and ships flying flags listed on the black list are liable for banning from the region after multiple detentions.

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