Cabotage Update
SRI has welcomed the recent announcement from the Australian government regarding funding for an Australian Strategic Fleet.
“This is a positive demonstration of the policies of a majority of countries around the world that have laws that regulate their maritime cabotage trades” says Deirdre Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of SRI.
In 2018, SRI published Cabotage Laws of the World which recorded that 91 States around the world have cabotage laws in place. The policy objectives underpinning these laws were found to be tailored to the specific national needs of different State but commonly included, for example: maintaining national security and defence capabilities through national merchant fleets; ensuring supply chain resiliency; providing essential public services where transport services might otherwise be disrupted by unforeseen events; developing human capacity and retaining skills in the national workforce; and creating jobs for national seafarers.
Deirdre Fitzpatrick further comments:
“Five years after our first report was published, and after the experience of Covid-19 pandemic, we are now updating our report and we expect to find that certain concerns have been heightened amongst governments such as supply chain resilience. We also expect to find heightened concerns around national security and defense capabilities given the bipolar political and trading world that appears to be emerging. Cabotage policies and laws have existed in some form for centuries in some countries and are applied along the coastlines of about 80% of the world. They are ever evolving and we expect to find that this process of change is accelerating”.
Cabotage Laws of the World
Cabotage Laws of the World (published in 2018) explores the nature and extent of cabotage laws around the world.
The report identified ninety-one member states of the United Nations that have cabotage laws restricting foreign activity in their domestic trades.
The report also describes the history of maritime cabotage and traces a number of early rudimentary legal principles. It sets out examples of the many different definitions of cabotage that exist today at the national, regional and international levels as well as examples of the restrictions of foreign activity and their waivers in domestic coastal trades.
Cabotage Laws of the World is based on legislation and advice received from professional law firms in 140 member states of the United Nations, many of whom are part of SRI’s independent network of lawyers worldwide. Written by lawyers, but not for lawyers, technical jargon and heavy authoritative footnotes have been kept to a minimum.
SRI was commissioned by the International Transport Workers’ Federation to undertake this independent study.
Evidence-based decision making is highly dependent on accurate facts and the lack of an up-to-date comprehensive study has been a major impediment to thoughtful policy-making on the subject.
The report is no longer available. It is being updated and expanded.
