Together with other international professional organisations, IUMI has closely followed the many changes that have impacted international trade principles since the beginning of this year.
Policy statements to implement trade barriers and tariffs against imported goods have caused deep concerns within the many countries that are highly involved in international trade and shipping.
Much diplomatic effort is now being expended to create the best deals to accommodate this evolution and avoid – as far as possible – a backward step in the international supply and demand of goods. These discussions are ongoing and the outcome remains to be seen.
At the same time, shipping is engaged in a race for new technologies to help meet overall decarbonisation targets set by IMO or the EU. These relatively new regulations are continuing to influence the shipping and ship building industry as well as international supply chain processes.
IUMI follows these issues closely in an attempt to ensure marine and transport insurers fully understand new regulations such as the recently introduced Emission Control Areas (ECA) in the Mediterranean, Arctic and Norwegian waters; and the EU regulations requiring 100% use of electric or green fuel energy when alongside in European ports.
The professional shipping and trade communities within Asia have been at the forefront of many of these technical evolutions and have made significant investments to prepare for the looming energy shift. Similarly, Asia has been in the vanguard of the use of generative AI within international transport. This tool has the potential to disrupt traditional business processes and enhance efficiency and generate cost savings. But will it also introduce new risks?
It is certainly too early to express a clear view but this important topic, and others, will be debated in Singapore in September at our next annual conference. Being in Singapore will allow us to draw on Asian experience to consider how these new data tools might influence how marine underwriters analyse their risks and support their customers.
Preparation for our conference is now underway with each Technical Committee and Forum working hard to make this professional gathering another resounding success. The over-arching theme for the event is “charting opportunities in changing tides” and it will be an appropriate reminder of how insurers from Asia and across the world have enabled free trade and economic growth over the last 40 years.
I look forward to meeting you in Singapore.
