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LEGAL | SANCTIONS In association with Shipowners’ Club
Sanctions are increasingly becoming the foreign policy tool of choice for a variety of governments and major powers including the United Nations, the European Union (EU), and the United States (US). The variety of sanctions restrictions has broadened, creating an abstruse and fluid landscape against which to determine risk. Camilla Slater, Head of legal,Shipowners’ explains.
Sanctions
rise up the agenda and show no sign of abating There has been much discussion of how the shipping and insurance sectors have been caught in the web of complexity created by sanctions. However, most reports refer to the operations of traditional, larger vessels rather than that of small and specialised vessels for which the risk is at least as great. With oil being one of the sectors targeted by sanctions, incidents involving large tankers are among some of the more high-profile cases to have appeared in the maritime press. This may lead some observers to believe that sanctions only affect operations of this type. However, much of the legislation is broadly The Marine Insurer | March 2020
worded, meaning that all vessel types are potentially affected. The impact on small and specialised vessels can be far reaching. Large offshore projects depend on a multitude of specialist vessels ranging from anchor handling tugs, to dredgers, pipe laying vessels and OSVs. Sanctions impacting such projects are widely felt by owners, charterers and the wider maritime community that supports the services provided by each of these vessels.
CHANGES IN LANDSCAPE
Significant developments have been seen in the sanctions landscape recently. Notably, the restrictions
have escalated with respect to Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. The US Government has demonstrated that it is prepared to pull away from the EU in its sanctions strategy in some areas, and has adopted a robust stance in doing so. In the context of shipping activities, the US has made it clear that it is willing to target those in the shipping industry that facilitate sanctions evasion. The majority of vessel owners and charterers simply wish to comply with the various regimes in place in order to avoid entanglement with sanctions activity. However, even the most well-intentioned owners and charterers can become unwittingly implicated in sanctions breaches and in doing so, the stakes are high. It has become a feature of the sanctions landscape for vessel activity to be monitored by governments and authorities. If suspected of sanctions breaches, the consequences can be
