Facilitation of Maritime Trade Committee

The IMO’s Committee on the Facilitation of Maritime Trade met between 23 and 27 March 2026

Seafarer health

In a welcome move for seafarers as key workers, a proposed amendment to the FAL Convention was adopted that guides governments to take consideration of IMO recommendations in respect of access to national vaccination programmes during public health emergencies of international concern.

IMO compendium

A new version of the IMO Compendium was approved, containing many new data sets. The IMO Compendium is a reference model which aims to harmonize the semantics and format for all information in the maritime domain relevant to the IMO. It remains under regular review, especially as new data requirements are identified, with the new version being seen as a welcome step forward in attempts to ensure that as much seafaring data as is practicable can be captured and exchanged in a standardised manner. This ensures that one input of seafaring information can be automatically read into many databases or forms.

API and BRI

The subject of collecting and disseminating Advance Passenger and Crew Information (API) and Booking and Reservation Information (BRI) received considerable scrutiny.  The collection of API and BRI in the cruise ship sector has been trialled generally successfully. However, it was highlighted that ferry traffic, especially short sea yet international ferry traffic, operates on a very different model from the aviation industry from which API and BRI requirements originated.  Under the adopted changes, expected to come into force on 1 January 2028, it is recommended that public authorities should require the transmission of API ‘before departure of a ship from the country of departure’ [sic].

Cyber security

New cyber security guidelines, previously developed by the Maritime Safety Committee, were adopted. These will be issued as a joint Maritime Safety Committee and Facilitation Committee circular, number MSC-FAL.1/Circ.3/Rev.2.

Further work has been commenced to develop a non-mandatory Maritime Cyber Code. A correspondence group has been initiated, and an inter-sessional Working Group is planned to meet in 2027 to progress this.

Bureaucracy

The committee also reviewed a paper by the IMO Secretariat that lists all regulations and publications relevant to the ship/port interface.  To be published as FAL.6/Circ.14/Rev.3, the new list runs to 66 pages. The long list notes the titles and reference numbers of Resolutions, Codes, Circulars, Guides and other documents related to ships and ports which are or relevance to port personnel and seafarers.

You can read more detailed updates of all IMO meetings in our monthly magazine, Seaways.