Lower operating costs: Ship owners who use
flags of convenience can save costs mainly on the crew wages and the maintenance costs.
problem with
flags of convenience. The fact of the matter is, due to
Thanks to the efforts of the International Transport Federation,
Flags of Convenience (FOCs) may soon be required by several regulatory agencies and sanction bodies to take into account the degree to which foreign owned vessels are registered.
The phenomenon of
flags of convenience ship registration thus suggests that in some contexts, regulatory havens will exist and will draw industry actors.
And a concerted international campaign should be launched to root out the cowboy operators flying under
flags of convenience.
The study commissioned by the environmental group WWF, the Australian government and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said
flags of convenience are the cornerstone of the illegal fishing industry.
"For far too long, many supermarkets have been using tertiary brands as
flags of convenience to sell products that do not meet standards of animal welfare specified for their own label lines.
Yes, they risk losing their cargoes to pirates, but in return, the lack of regulation allows them to boost their profits by using
flags of convenience and the other oddities of ocean law that have developed over the past 500 years.
Langewiesche tells of convoluted patterns of registry and ownership, ships flying "
flags of convenience," and routine flouting of the 1994 International Law of the Sea, to which the US is not a signatory.
Eight nations are currently registering vessels under their '
flags of convenience' regulations to raise much needed revenue.
As a result,
flags of convenience and false certificates for merchant navy officers were the issues that most needed to be tackled.
In fact, many British-owned ships do not fly the red ensign, but fly '
flags of convenience'."