ANOTHER month, another IMO committee, another address by the secretary-general, another swathe of regulations to be agreed and adopted.

This week’s Maritime Safety Committee feels a lot like MEPC, with too many agenda items chasing too little time. As MEPC proved, IMO can get work done when it needs to, but there is also a tinge of the student leaving things to the last minute.

This time, the hot potato is Long Range Identification and Tracking, a system that many member states do not want and fewer still want to pay for, but which has a drop-dead implementation date a little over six months away. That the intercessional working group has done a terrific job in putting together the technical backbone for the system cannot mask the fact that there are big issues to be resolved.

Efthimios Mitropoulos made clear in his opening address that the IMO’s history of delivery demanded another demonstration, but as some members regularly complain, every item is these days considered urgent. They also grumble that they and the industry are being asked to pay for the security requirements of one country rather than for a system that is a global benefit to all nations.