IMO, during FAL 46 in May 2022, decided that the amendments to the IMO Facilitation (FAL) Convention should enter into force from January 1st 2024. These amendments require signatories to the Convention to implement an electronic maritime single window (MSW) for all declarations made by a ship in conjunction with international port calls. This deadline is approaching fast, and there is an increasing worry that different approaches to MSW in different countries may cause interoperability problems for the maritime community, and in particular for the ships that call on the different ports.

To get a better overview of the situation, an international workshop was arranged in Oslo on October 3rd to discuss different approaches to MSW implementation. After the workshop, BIMCO, International Port Community System Association (IPSCA) and ISO TC8 compiled some recommendation for making the MSW as useful as possible. This includes e.g. making sure that the ship can participate in the clearance process, the use of machine-to-machine automated reporting and the use of internationally accepted standards for the digital interfaces to the MSW. The full text of the recommendations can be got via the below link to the workshop information.

Details of the workshop and copies of the presentations can be found on http://ists.mits-forum.org/events/221003-msw/program.html.
Source: SINTEF Ocean