Liberia's national flag poses a challengem to the practice of 'flags of convenience'
The Liberian Flag, one of the world's largest international flags, has been consistently "white-listed" by the Paris MoU, a cooperative of 27 countries mainly in Europe, demonstrating Liberia's performance as a high-quality flag state. This prestigious status is a testament to the Liberian Ship Registry's commitment to maintaining high standards and compliance.
The popularity of international flags like Liberia and the Marshall Islands among ship charterers is due to their quality. The Liberian Flag, in particular, has achieved the Coast Guard's annual "Qualship 21" designation for highest performing flag states nine times between 2011 and 2024.
However, the Liberian Flag will be ineligible for Qualship 21 status through June 30, 2026. This temporary setback does not diminish the Registry's commitment to continuous improvement and compliance.
The Liberian Ship Registry has been advocating for a change in the way foreign-flag registries are perceived. It argues against the label "flags of convenience" (FOC) as a pejorative that unfairly groups all foreign-flag registries allowing non-national ownership into one negative category. Instead, it urges the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to replace this binary classification with a more nuanced framework.
This new framework would distinguish between:
- International Flags: Registries allowing foreign ownership but maintaining high standards and compliance, such as Liberia and the Marshall Islands.
- National Flags: Registries limited to vessels owned by nationals of that country, like the U.S.
- Flags of Non-Compliance (FONCs): Registries that ignore national and international laws, enabling evasion of regulations and poor operating practices.
The Registry criticizes the traditional "FOC" label for implying automatic regulatory evasion and poor quality simply because ships can be registered without a national link. This oversimplification ignores clearly distinct registry performance and oversight levels and conflates legitimate open registries with truly problematic "shadow fleets."
The Liberian registry emphasizes that many international flags are among the highest-performing vessel registries, countering the assumption that open registries are inherently low quality or used for cheap, low-standard operations.
In contrast, some sources note that many FOCs have historically been linked to lax enforcement, low wages, poor seafarer conditions, and ship abandonment. The FMC’s investigation cited incidents involving foreign-flagged vessels, but critics say this unfairly generalizes to reputable registries like Liberia, Singapore, or Malta, which maintain strong oversight.
Thus, Liberia’s argument is primarily about rejecting sweeping negative stereotypes applied to all open registries and promoting a classification system that recognizes the diversity of registry quality and compliance in modern maritime practice.
In addition to advocating for a new classification system, the Liberian Ship Registry has also suggested several measures to improve sanctions compliance and quality management. These include the creation of an in-house sanctions compliance department, the production of ISO 9001:2015 certifications to relevant regulatory bodies, and the consideration of becoming a signatory member of the Registry Information Sharing Compact. The Registry has also suggested the establishment of an office in the U.S. that can coordinate with government agencies, including the Coast Guard and the Treasury Department.
As the Liberian Flag continues to strive for excellence and challenge negative stereotypes, it remains a significant player in the international maritime landscape.
[1] Liberian Ship Registry Press Release, "Liberian Registry's Response to FMC Report on Open Registries," 2021. [2] International Transport Workers' Federation, "Flags of Convenience: A Modern Day Scourge," 2018. [3] Human Rights at Sea, "Flags of Convenience and the Human Rights Challenges," 2020. [4] Liberian Ship Registry White Paper, "Reconsidering the 'Flags of Convenience' Label: A Proposal for a More Nuanced Approach," 2021.
- The Liberian Ship Registry is a leading example of an international flag in the maritime industry, consistently maintaining high business standards and compliance, as demonstrated by their achievement of the Coast Guard's annual "Qualship 21" designation.
- In a bid to challenge negative stereotypes about foreign-flag registries, the Liberian Ship Registry advocates for a more nuanced classification system in finance and investing, differentiating between high-performing international flags like Liberia and the Marshall Islands, national flags, and flags of non-compliance (FONCs), in an effort to promote a more accurate representation of registry quality and oversight levels.
