Shipping company superpower – What role does Switzerland play as a maritime power? – News

Landlocked Switzerland is the fourth largest shipping location in Europe and is therefore heavily involved in global shipping, especially through ships controlled by local commodity traders. Switzerland also plays a significant role as the flag state for river cruises. In an interview, corruption expert and author Mark Pieth provides answers about the current challenges facing Swiss maritime power.

Mark Pieth

money laundering expert


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Pieth is a professor emeritus of criminal law and an internationally renowned expert on money laundering. In 2016, he was a member of an expert panel that made proposals for more transparent financial and legal systems to the Panamanian government in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal.

In , together with Kathrin Betz, he wrote the book «Seafaring Nation Switzerland».

SRF News: Why is Switzerland considered a maritime power?

Mark Pieth: Only a few ocean-going ships sail under the Swiss flag, that’s pretty well known. We currently have 17 ships after the financial crisis. There is less public awareness that Switzerland is a major shipping company – depending on how you count, we have 1,000 or 2,500 ships that are managed from Switzerland. Most of the ships that are moved from Switzerland sail under flags such as Panama or Liberia. They cost little and control is lax.

What is shipping company?


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The shipping company is a company form in maritime law. As a company, its purpose is based on defining the movement of goods and people with ships. This refers to sea or inland shipping. The so-called shipowner is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the ships.

What problems does the shipping company bring with it?

Shipping is risky: a large cargo ship sinks every week. In addition, it is important to do more against the notorious lack of transparency in the industry, against environmental pollution and against appalling working conditions at sea. The environment is of course a particularly big problem.

Official Switzerland does not take note of the extent to which we share responsibility.

We are certainly not the only ones, but we are partly responsible for all these problems. I don’t think official Switzerland takes note of the extent to which this is the case.

Switzerland as a global shipping company player


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The matter is complicated, because shipping is not a clearly defined activity – and shipowners are often not the owners of their ships, but managers, operators or charterers. The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) estimates the shipping industry in Switzerland at 60 companies with around 900 ships. The best known is the Geneva-based MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), the largest container shipping company in the world. In terms of tonnage, the FDF came to the conclusion that Switzerland ranked 9th in the world in 2019.

Other calculations include the ships of the Swiss-based commodities companies: companies such as Glencore, the oil trader Gunvor, or Vitol, which of course transport many commodities. Overall, observers with this somewhat different counting method come to around 2,600 instead of 900 ships that are managed from Switzerland. According to this method of counting, Switzerland would even be number two in the world for shipping company locations.

What should Switzerland do about it?

Switzerland sits on all sorts of bodies – for example the IMO, the International Maritime Organization, or the UN, which deals with environmental issues, among other things. Today, the flags of convenience, such as Panama, set the tone in these bodies. They represent the interests of the really big shipping companies, not necessarily the interests of the environment. For example, Switzerland could ensure that we become climate-neutral by 2050. We pretend we only have 17 ships, not 2000 – we’re hiding a bit.

MSC container ship

Legend:

“When it comes to dealing with problems that are partly caused by shipping companies based in Switzerland, the Swiss authorities like to hide behind the cozy image of the Alpine republic far away from the world’s oceans,” say Mark Pieth and Kathrin Betz in their new book ” Seafaring nation Switzerland».

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The Federal Council commissioned the FDFA to draw up a maritime strategy. What do you make of it?

I think it’s good that we’re doing this at all. Until now, the perception was Lake Lucerne and steamships. One of the big questions will be whether or not we should keep our own flag. It was set up during World War II for the national supply. And in recent years, Switzerland has fallen flat on its face, you had to make emergency sales and draw federal guarantees.

Now the question arises: Do we still need this flag? I think the guarantees have to be dropped. But we could be attractive with our flag if we have a serious and clean flag, for example by guaranteeing minimum standards in working conditions.

So should Switzerland expand its flag?

That makes sense, but it could be difficult – the competition is of course fierce: flags of convenience where no taxes are paid, where, for example, labor law is not looked at very closely. Switzerland would have to link up at these points and turn against it. The Swiss flag could be made more attractive by being cleaner in terms of labor law and the environment. At the moment it’s still mostly junk boats – we need to go in a direction where ships don’t break easily.

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