S. PACIFIC REPUBLIC COMPETES FOR MERCHANT-SHIP REGISTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00178R000100010002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2005
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 25, 1981
• Content Type: NSPR

By Thomas W Ltppntan , , ;New` Hebrides. It consists of a ~ of-convenience registry is no' joke
Problem: a small, obscure coon= Pacific about 1,100 miles north-~ merce. Statistics compiled. by
try, with few natural resources and ? east of .Australia. The population Lloyd's Shipping Economist
the
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no industry. Solution;, ,recently is about 110,440, and- the toter U.S. Maritime Administration and
adopted by -the Republic of .land area is 5,704 square. miles, the Transportation Institute sFtow
Vanuatu: open-registry shipping, about the size of Connecticut. -that well over one-fourth of the
better known ,.,:as .,: flag;of-_,. _: "Most. people don't know how- - 25,400 freighters and tankers in
', ~ convenience registry, an invitation to pronounce it, and a lot don't the world are dying flags of con-
to the world's .merchant fleets. to know where it is," Hubbard said.. venience. Others would, too, if not
enjoy the tax bectefits and benign "We still have a credibility prob-~ . -for laws in many countries requ-
regulations ~ot~. VanuaCu'~;~attonal= lem. It sounds like it's in Africa or ring that certain :,percentages? of
ity. ;, , ~~ Y_, ~ :. > I ,q . ~~~~ -. somepl'ace_'like that. What: we. are ~-their trade be carried in ships of
In a direet'~c3talienge to Liberia ~fioping to sell; trying to get acro:3s, home registry: '
and. Panama, -the giants.. of the, is that Vanuatu is a parliamentary Owned largely by shipping lines
tlag-of?convenience trade, democracy and i+ery stable." - ~ ,. and oil companies in the United.
Vanuatu. has opened its -shippttig. - =His tone- was; jocular, but flag-, See VANUATU, D]2, Col. l
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For a modest fE;e, the shios