Free Republic

But there is a broader issue that warrants consideration at the highest levels--excessive U.S. reliance on foreign-flagged ships and foreign crews for routine international trade and even for defense work. Foreign-flagged cargo ships now carry better than 97 percent of U.S. commercial imports and exports. Many of these ships are registered in unaccountable flag of convenience countries like Liberia (which has been said to use ship registry revenues to help finance a brutal rebel faction in neighboring Sierra Leone) and Panama (awash in fraudulent seafarer certificates and licenses for sale

Labor has joined the Maritime Union of Australia in its call for tougher restrictions on ammonium nitrate shipments. Opposition leader Kim Beazley was in Gladstone on September 1 to raise concerns over a Flag of Convenience ship carrying volatile ammonium nitrate on the Australian coast. The Antiguan registered, Ukranian and Bulgarian crewed Pancaldo loaded 3000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a potential explosive, in Newcastle earlier in the week after being granted a single voyage permit to trade on the Australian coast. "I am growing more and more concerned about the potential for foreign ships to operate in Australia's coastal waters...