CMS NEWSLETTER                                       Ref: 01/14

January 13, 2014

Amendments and Adjustments on Five MOT Regulations

Outline

★    The Ministry of Transportation held two meetings on 22 August 2013 and 16 December, 2013 respectively.

★    Five regulations are amended and released.

Dear Sir,

At the beginning of year 2014, we summarized some MOT Regulations amendments and adjustments happened in the second half of year 2013 for your reference. Hope the following information will be useful.

1. Implementation Measures of the People’s Republic ofChinaon Ships Oil Pollution Damage Civil Liability Insurance (MOT Regulation No. 11 of 2013)

(1) Chapter 3 as “Ships Oil Pollution Damage Civil Liability Insurance Institutions" was deleted.

(2) One term was added as Article 8.

All owners of Chinese-flagged vessels should buy ships oil pollution damage civil liability insurance from commercial insurance companies legally established inChinaor mutual insurance institutions which are legally established inChinaor having representative office/agency inChina; or obtain the letter of guarantees, letters of Credit and other financial assurance from foresaid insurance institutions and domestic banks.

Owners of Chinese-flagged vessels should buy ships oil pollution damage civil liability insurance or obtain financial assurance from the insurance institutions having adequate financial abilities. Insurance institutions should provide the owners of Chinese-flagged vessels with the relevant documents on their financial ability to pay to owners of Chinese vessels.

(3) Amend Article 16 as follows.

If insurance institutions engaging in oil pollution civil liability insurance refuse to execute the effective court judgment, arbitration award and do not pay the compensation to the vessels, maritime administration will not accepted the oil pollution damage civil liability policy or other financial guarantees issued by those insurance institutions for three years.

2. Prevention and Disposal Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Marine Pollution from Ships and from Ship’s Relevant Operations  (MOT Regulation No. 12 of 2013)

Delete the following content in Article 44, “vessel repairing and water dismantling operations should be conducted at the locations determined and announced by maritime administration."

3. Investigation and Disposal Regulations of the People’s Republic ofChinaon Marine Pollution from Ships Accidents (MOT Regulation No. 16 of 2013)

Delete chapter 4, “Approved authentication institution."

4. Prevention and Disposal Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Marine Pollution from Ships and from Ship’s Relevant Operations  (MOT Regulation No. 17 of 2013)

Amend the content of Article 31 as follows:” when owner or agency of cargo delivers pollution hazardous unknown cargo to vessel, they should instruct appropriate qualified technical organization to assess the nature of cargo pollution hazard and technical condition of the carrying vessel”.

5. The PRC’s Administrative Provisions on Emergency Preparedness Against and Emergency Response to Marine Environmental Pollution by Vessels (MOT Regulation No. 19 of 2013)

(1) Two articles are added as Article 8 and Article 9.

Article 8: "Ports, docks, loading/unloading stations and divisions engaged in ship repair, salvage, demolition and other related operation should formulate safety management and pollution prevention system in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Transport, equip with necessary pollution prevention and control equipments and materials in accordance with national standards and criterions related to pollution prevention and control of ship and its related work activities to marine environment and ensure that he foresaid equipments and materials are applicable to requests on pollution prevention and control of ship and its related work activities to marine environment."

Article 9: " Ports, docks, loading/unloading stations and divisions engaged in ship repair, salvage, demolition and other related operation should prepare reports to evaluate whether their ship pollution prevention and control ability is accommodated with their loading/unloading cargo type, throughput capacity or necessary pollution surveillance/monitoring capabilities on ship repair, salvage, dismantling activities, receiving and processing capacity of ship pollutant and emergency response capacity of marine pollution accident.

When transport authorities legally carry out inspection work on ports, docks, loading/unloading stations, transport authorities should review the evaluation report to ensure these divisions do have ship pollution prevention and control capabilities in accordance with their operations. "

(2) Delete chapter 3, “Special Inspection”.

All the five regulations entered in to force in last August and December.

In the context of national government’s streamline administration and institute decentralization, the amendments and adjustments on the five regulations are considered as a signal that maritime administration is on the way of changing its supervision mode and decentralize to the market, and let the market to regulate itself in a more efficiency way.

For more information, please visit our website: www.cmsonline.net