BIMCO - Waypoints Issue 03
BIMCO’s General Counsel Christian Hoppe reports on how the shipping industry’s largest membership-based NGO enjoys a key symbiotic relationship with the P&I clubs.
(General Counsel, BIMCO)
BIMCO, formerly known as Baltic and International Maritime Council, was originally set up in 1905 to establish an agreement of timber freight rates between Copenhagen shipowners. Now the organisation’s core activity is the development of standard documentation for the shipping industry and it strives to be at the forefront of relevant global developments by continuously developing contractual solutions that meet the industry’s needs.
BIMCO’s contracts and
clauses are made available
to the shipping industry
as a whole, regardless of
membership so it’s of critical
importance that they are
of far-reaching relevance,
widely taken up and do
not conflict with insurance
related considerations.
With this in mind, of the
hundreds of contracts that
BIMCO has developed over
the years, most of them have
been reached with the very
close involvement of the P&I
clubs. The only exceptions
are the financing or sales and
purchase agreements.
The clubs’ involvement can
be on a top down level, with
the International Group of
P&I Clubs (IGP&I) involved
very closely in BIMCO’s
Documentary Committee.
Francis Sarre of CMB, who
was formerly Chairman
of the Documentary
Committee is current
Chairman of West P&I. But also, whenever we put
together any new standard
we assemble a small
drafting team with experts
and stakeholders from
various areas of the shipping
industry, from shipowners
to bankers and lawyers,
and this very often includes
representatives from the
P&I clubs, with regular
representation from West.
It is equally important to
have balanced and clearly
worded contracts and
clauses that are market
and business cycle neutral
– principles that have been
part of BIMCO’s strategy
for decades and guide the
Documentary Committee
and various drafting
subcommittees in their work.
Otherwise they would simply
not be so widely recognised
by the industry.
While BIMCO benefits from our contracts and clauses being widely recognised, the P&I clubs have a vested interest in the wording of any new documentation, because, by way of example, if a clause was to be drafted in such as way that it caused a dispute somewhere down the line, it would be likely that a P&I club would ultimately end up closely involved in that dispute. Outside of the contracts and clauses aspects of our work BIMCO shares with the P&I clubs a remit to widely disseminate information to the industry from security and piracy updates to data on fuel quality and sanction activities.
As the clubs and BIMCO share members spread throughout the world’s oceans we freely exchange such information as widely as we can and all call upon extensive networks and technologies to help us do so.
Click here to learn more about BIMCO.
Christian Hope
(General Counsel, BIMCO)
