ruben.maritime

HAMBURG 04 December – Government and trade union representatives in Germany have threatened to walk away from the country’s national maritime pact unless German ship owners reverse the recent trend to leave the domestic register. The association of German ship owners was forced to commit to the reflagging of another 80 ships at the 5th national maritime conference in Hamburg today in exchange for a continuation of the tonnage tax and reduced income tax rates for German seafarers. The goal is to bring the number of ships under the country’s flag to 500 by 2008 and then up to 600 by 2010 provided that shipping markets do not collapse. Frank Leonhard, chairman of the German ship owners’ association, caused a storm of protest at the high-level meeting when he suggested that the number of German-flagged ships might decline even further. “This is not due to a lack of determination within the industry. There are simply no German captains available,” he warned. The association promised it would contribute 50% of its annual membership fees to training institutes and universities in order to expedite the qualification of German masters.

Etiquetas: international maritime affairs

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