Seminar in Istanbul for Ship Owners and Agents

Practical Problems of Ship Owners in the Black Sea Ports of Ukraine and Russia

The main problems of ship owners today are the problems with customs clearance of vessels and cargoes and various administrative obstacles. Considering the urgency of similar issues and meeting the interests of the Turkish ship owners, the law firms International Law Offices’ (Ukraine) and ‘Remedy’(Russia) combined their efforts with the Turkish associated office Dogu Law Office to discuss the issues on protection of the ship owners’ interests within the framework of the seminar Practical Problems of Ship Owners in the Black Sea Ports of Ukraine and Russia. The seminar, held on the 7th of December 2010 in Istanbul, gathered representatives from more than 80 shipping and agency companies. The event was financially supported by the old friend of the organizer, insurance company ‘Soglasiye’.

 The representative of Bora Shipping, Captain Alev Tunch, opened the seminar. Partners of ‘International Law Offices’, Arthur Nitsevych and Nikolay Melnykov, dwelled upon the main issues being interested for the Turkish ship owners, namely, quotas imposition on grain export, liability for marine pollution, accidents, cargo detention etc.

A separate block (made by Andrey Suprunenko) covered arrests of vessels in Russia and Ukraine. The speeches of the representatives from ‘ Soglasiye’ (Svetlana Merkulova) and surveyor company ‘Ships and People’ (Yegeniy Chekalov) also attracted the listeners’ attention.

 The seminar was followed by the interactive discussion between in the participants: the Ukrainian delegation, friends and clients of ‘International Law Offices’ (Boris Khrebtov (Maxmarine), Igor Zadorozhnyu (Polaris), Sergey Nazarenko (Dealex Transport), Dmitriy Bychkov (Odemara)) answered the questions of the Turkish ship owners.

As a resume the organizers proposed to the participants to work over avoidance of such situations as a real time analysis and advice may prevent from unpleasant situations.

After the official part of the seminar participants continued their communication in an informal way. A friendly exchange of views is really useful. It leads to mutual enrichment and gives the possibility to preserve long-term mutually beneficial relations between ship owners, insurers and lawyers. Nowadays there are all remedies to prevent improper actions in future and to find a solution of the most problematic issue; you should only enjoy the advice or assistance of your colleagues and see it in a different light.