90% of world trade is carried by sea. The pandemic has highlighted the vital importance of maintaining collaborative multilateral structures and upholding principles of international shipping policy to ensure the continuing provision of efficient maritime supply chains.

Shipping is the lifeblood of the global economy. Throughout the pandemic, in the face of travel restrictions and an international crew change crisis, shipping has kept supply chains moving, transporting the energy, food and raw materials, as well as manufactured goods and products, on which twenty-first century life depends. This includes the transportation of billions of vaccines and other critical medical supplies.

The pandemic is not yet over. But the disruption to trade has clearly demonstrated the vulnerabilities of our globalised economy and its absolute dependence on an efficient maritime transportation system.

This manifesto for pandemic recovery and its Calls to Action, if acted upon by governments, can help ensure that the global shipping industry can play its full part in the pandemic recovery, contributing to the further improvement of global prosperity as the world’s population continues to grow.

In support of sustainable development, it is of the utmost
importance that governments remain committed to the
existing global regulatory framework for shipping and the
maintenance of maritime free trade principles.