17 June 1992
D L McMillan Esq WASHINGTON
سط
HKC 175/1
см
DIEN ET
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
شم
143
Naintive
196.
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071- 270 2628
NORTH ATLANTIC ICE PATROL (NAIP)
1. Thank you for obtaining the detailed breakdown of charges levied under NAIP in 1989. It all presents a rather confusing picture but, despite the inconsistencies, (mainly vessels appearing on the wrong lists), the Department of Transport is satisfied that the assessment was substantially correct and we will not be asking for a readjustment.
I now attach a draft reply to the undated State Department note about the future of NAIP. If you agree the line we are taking would you have this prepared in final and delivered.
2.
3.
We are also concerned about Liberia's denunciation of the agreement which will result in higher assessments for other States Parties and may lead to further denunciations. Indeed, we have considered hard ourselves whether NAIP performs a useful function in these days of 'high-tech' ships. At present the view of Marine Directorate is that it does and that has been confirmed by the Council of Shipping who believe that NAIP provides an essential service.
4.
It makes sense to support the US proposal to invite some of the non-contributing beneficiaries to become parties to the NAIP Agreement but there may be some misunderstandings of the position of what the US quaintly refers to as the "British Colonies". By virtue of Article 2 of the Agreement the provisions cannot apply to Dependent Territories not covered by SOLAS 74 and an invitation to the UK in respect of any of these Dependencies would be inappropriate. The Dependent Territories covered by SOLAS 74 (Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man) are already charged to the UK's assessment. If we were to extend SOLAS to the smaller DTs, after categorisation for instance, the UK would at that time accept responsibility for the NAIP contributions of the territories concerned. I note that the US partially recognised their error in issuing a revised assessment on 24 November '91 transferring the "British Colonies" assessment to the UK. But the list was hopelessly confused and included charges
PW5AAT
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