The Implementation of Port State Control in Taiwan

Abstract

Port state control (PSC) is the inspection of foreign flagged vessels in national ports to verify that the condition of ships and equipment comply with the requirements of international conventions and that ships are manned and operated in compliance with applicable international laws. To do its duty as an important maritime country to combat substandard shipping and protect marine environment, Taiwan began implementing its PSC system from the beginning of 2003 although it has not been accepted as a member state of the IMO or Tokyo MOU. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the newly implemented PSC system in Taiwan. It is hoped that Taiwan's experience on launching PSC operations will be a good referral to other country's system. The major contents include the introduction of the system and the analysis of ship's inspection results over the past four years. The paper further discusses some in-depth issues about the system including the difficulties of the implementation and the inadequacies of the system.