A new amendment to the FAL Convention which aims to address the need to combat illicit activities in the national facilitation programmes of Governments has been adopted by the Facilitation Committee (FAL 47).
The amended recommended practice 7.11 says that "Each Contracting Government should consider establishing, in close cooperation with the maritime industry, a national maritime transport facilitation programme based on the facilitation requirements of this annex and ensure that the objective of its facilitation programme should be to adopt all practical measures to facilitate the movement of ships, cargo, crews, passengers, mail and stores, by removing unnecessary obstacles and delays, taking into account the need to combat illicit activities."
The amendment is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2025.
The Committee also adopted a resolution on recommended actions to accelerate the implementation of the maritime single window; approved a revised version of the IMO Compendium on Facilitation and Electronic Business; and approved Guidelines for harmonized communication and electronic exchange of operational data for port calls.