THE US delegation has so far failed to attend this week’s pivotal International Maritime Organization negotiations, and it isn’t yet clear why.

Sources at the Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC83) said the team of US negotiators had been recalled shortly before the meeting and lacked an official mandate to take part, leaving three empty seats in the MEPC plenary talks.

“It’s definitely deliberate,” one delegate said, suggesting the move was meant to signal the new Trump administration’s opposition to green politics in general, and the possible imposition of outside taxes on the US in particular.

The US has stayed mostly silent so far in the talks on IMO mid-term measures to decarbonise shipping by or around 2050, which are due to be approved on Friday.

It has never supported the creation of a separate carbon levy, and delegates wonder about its position on the J9 credit-trading scheme being thrashed out this this week.

Climate progressives said privately they were glad the US was not there to obstruct potential progress.

The MEPC’s greenhouse gas working group — at one point numbering about 1,000 people — has been working long hours since last Monday to agree on the shape of a carbon price and fuel standard.

Negotiators expect most of the important details, such as the new regulation’s price and scope of emissions, to be agreed only at the last minute on Friday. Many more details will be left to the next meeting in October.

An IMO spokesperson said the secretariat was aware of the US’ absence without saying if it was notified in advance.

“Participation in a meeting in person or online is a decision for each member state and requires no justification,” she said.

The US Embassy in London did not respond to an emailed request for comment.        

Lloyd’s List has reported that the IMO’s progressive bloc, led by the Pacific Islands, does not think the GHG regulations would be derailed if the US chose to withdraw from the IMO, as it did from the Paris Agreement.

That was because the US builds and flags relatively few merchant ships, and is one country among 176 at the IMO.