Banning of foreign vessels in US resulting from detention in connection with PSC

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Oct 2010

The US Coast Guard has issued a policy letter on the banning of foreign vessels. Such banning has been ordered sporadically in the past and now a more formal protocol has been established. A foreign vessel that has been detained three times within the previous twelve months can be hit by a ban for entering the territorial waters of US, en route, a port or place subject to the jurisdiction of the US. This policy is almost similar to the new rules in Paris MoU from 1 January 2011 but an important distinction is that the ban in US is subjected to an International Safety Management (ISM) Code expanded examination to determine if effectively implementation of the vessel’s Safety Management System (SMS) was a contributing factor for the substandard conditions that led to the detentions. If the vessel fails its expanded examination following three detentions within the previous twelve months, a Letter of Denial will be sent to the vessel’s Owner and Company informing them that the vessel will be denied entry into any port or place in the United States unless specific actions are completed to the satisfaction of the US Coast Guard.
The ban will not be impacted regardless of whether the vessel is sold, placed under new management, reflagged, or renamed. Upon satisfactory review of all the submitted information required by the Letter of Denial, the Coast Guard will issue a Letter of Acceptance.

Source: BIMCO