Maritime authorities around the world have warned that the emergence of a “parallel system” could create a two-tier structure in international shipping, undermining trust and safety at sea.
The Consultative Shipping Group (CSG), an informal cooperative organization between the world’s 18 shipping nations’ maritime associations, noted in a joint statement released on Tuesday that more than 80% of global trade is carried by sea.
“Without maritime trade, supply chains would be disrupted and the global economy as we know it would come to an abrupt halt,” the group said.
The report pointed to events such as the coronavirus pandemic, the Ukraine war, the Panama Canal drought, and the US-Iran war, and warned that maritime supply chains face repeated disruptions that “increase uncertainty and add friction to global supply chain efficiency.”
The conflict in the Middle East has created a major bottleneck in global shipping this year, thanks to blockades and fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway south of Iran. As a result, prices of products such as oil and fertilizers soared.
The CSG warned on Tuesday that “discriminatory trade measures” would intensify the impact of developments affecting maritime navigation.
“International shipping works best when rules are clear and consistent around the world,” the coalition said. “Uncertainty about future access to ports and shipping lanes can impact long-term commercial planning. As countries begin to pursue different approaches, regional initiatives and gridlock in multilateral processes weaken system coherence.”
“Fragmentation of rules leads directly to market fragmentation, which ultimately leads to increased costs for businesses and consumers,” he warned.
CSG members include national authorities such as Germany, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and South Korea. They said on Tuesday that geopolitical pressure on shipping is not a “temporary shock” but “a sign of structural changes in the operating environment for global trade.”
“Sea routes are increasingly becoming instruments of influence and risk,” they said. “Sovereignty, resilience and prosperity depend on partnerships and practical cooperation and coordination to maintain an open global trading system.”
They warned that an increasing number of ships were engaging in sanctions-evading operations, and that “an unregulated shadow fleet of hundreds of vessels operating outside standard insurance, safety and transparency frameworks” was further fragmenting global supply chains.
“This creates parallel systems within global shipping, increasing risks, circumventing environmental and safety standards, and undermining confidence and predictability in maritime markets,” CSG said. “The result is a two-tiered system, one governed by rules and one governed by opacity, which ultimately undermines both.”
The group called on maritime states to “actively support and uphold the core principles governing shipping,” and said existing international rules needed to be enforced across jurisdictions, alongside political support “to develop and maintain common standards.”
“Strong international cooperation is not a constraint on sovereignty; it is a prerequisite for effective governance in an interconnected world,” the CSG said.
“Allowing fragmentation to deepen will undermine the global rules-based maritime framework and increase the risk of disruption at key maritime choke points,” the report added. “As the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shows, when maritime supply chains are disrupted, so too is the global economy.”
